NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A Vanderbilt international law expert says the threat by attorneys for Saddam Hussein to end all contact with the Iraqi court that will try the former Iraqi president is nothing but “legal maneuvering.”
Despite the second murder of a member of the defense team and the threat by Hussein’s attorneys that they are canceling the Nov. 28 scheduled hearings, Mike Newton, adviser to the Iraqi Tribunal and associate clinical professor of law at Vanderbilt, says he fully expects the hearings to proceed as scheduled.
“The Iraqi judges have a number of options, including appointing a defense team for Hussein if his current team decides not to participate,” says Newton, former senior adviser to the U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues.
The Iraqi judges can also order the defense attorneys to use protection provided by the court, Newton says. “They were offered protection before the trial started but they refused, because they said they did not trust the tribunal.”
Newton, recently retired from the military, helped establish the Iraqi Tribunal and helped train the Iraqi judges. He traveled to Baghdad on two occasions to conduct training sessions for the Iraqi judges, and participated in several other training sessions. While serving as the special adviser to the U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues in the State Department, Newton negotiated the Elements of Crimes a document for the International Criminal Court and was involved in establishing the Sierra Leone Special Court.
Media contact: Emily Pearce, (615) 322-NEWS
Emily.pearce@vanderbilt.edu