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International-UN-NGOs

Ex-U.N. oil-for-food chief charged

2007-01-16

Tough choice: "UN" or "Lurid Crime Tales"... NEW YORK - The former United Nations oil-for-food chief was charged Tuesday with bribery and conspiracy to commit wire fraud for his role in the scandal-tainted humanitarian program. At the UN, it's "Scandal Tainted™". The charges against Benon Sevan, 69, of Nicosia, Cyprus, were contained in a rewrite of an indictment stemming from the scandal over the operation set up from 1996 to 2003 to permit the Iraqi government to sell oil primarily to buy food and medicine for suffering Iraqis. Looks like you'll have to keep using the stairs, Benon. There's probably an elevator shaft with your name on it. The program was designed to help Iraqis cope with U.N. sanctions, but authorities said it was corrupted by bureaucrats, oil tycoons and Saddam Hussein after the former Iraqi leader was allowed to choose the buyers of Iraqi oil and the sellers of humanitarian goods. Sevan, who had worked for the U.N. for 40 years, has repeatedly denied wrongdoing. Federal and state prosecutors also announced the indictment of Ephraim Nadler, 79, of Manhattan, on the same charges. He helped a coconspirator obtain the right to buy Iraqi oil under the program in exchange for commissions from the oil sales and then funneled approximately $160,000 of these oil commissions to Sevan, the indictment said. Nadler is the brother-in-law of former U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali. U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia said the United States has lodged warrants for the arrest of both men with Interpol and will seek their arrest and extradition to the United States. FBI Assistant Director Mark J. Mershon said the indictment brings to 14 the number of individuals charged in the case. Since 2004, Sevan has been the subject of a U.N.-backed probe of fraud and waste in the $64 billion operation. Eric Lewis, a lawyer for Sevan, did not immediately return a telephone message for comment. In August 2005, a U.N.-appointed investigating committee pursuing claims of fraud and waste in the program accused Sevan of a conflict of interest in his handling of oil-for-food contracts. Sevan resigned from the U.N. that same month and returned to his native Cyprus. The U.N. investigating committee also accused him of accepting some $147,000 in kickbacks for steering the contracts to a company of his choice. Benon, they got you for chump change, man... On Feb. 22, South Korean businessman Tongsun Park is scheduled to be sentenced for his conviction on charges he accepted at least $2 million to serve Iraq's interests in the scandal. He could face up to five years in prison. Hey, Tongsun Park. The Zelig of international corruption... Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Miller told the jury in Park's trial last July that Park was part of a decade-long conspiracy to bring about the lifting of sanctions imposed on Iraq after it invaded Kuwait and brought about the first Gulf War. Miller said Park used his relationship with former U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali to join an effort by Samir A. Vincent, an Iraqi-American, to earn the favor of Iraq and share as much as $45 million in windfall gains if the sanctions were lifted. Vincent, who testified against Park, has pleaded guilty to federal charges and is cooperating with the government. He testified that Park arranged meetings during 1993 with himself, Boutros-Ghali and Vincent. Miller told the jury that Park and Vincent arranged a 1993 meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, with Boutros-Ghali and Tariq Aziz, then Iraq's deputy foreign minister, and Barzan al-Tikriti, the half brother of Saddam who then was the Iraqi ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva. I see Boutros-Boutrous mentioned here a lot. They gonna go after him? Yeah, I didn't think so... Several others accused in the conspiracy are awaiting trial, including Texas oilman Oscar S. Wyatt Jr., who has pleaded not guilty. Be a standup guy, Benon. Don't go against the family. Take it like a man...

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Iraq

Video of Two Saddam Aides Executions Shown

2007-01-16

The spokesman for the Iraqi government Dr. Ali al-Dabbagh showed journalists on Monday a video tape recording the execution of Saddam's two aides during which one of them was beheaded. The film shows Barzan al-Tikriti, Saddam's half brother, and Awwad al-Bander, former revolutionary court chief judge, in prisoners orange uniforms as they were standing on gallows in preparation for hanging side by side. Hangmen placed black hoods round the two men's heads, then the noose for carrying out the execution. The video tape also showed Barzan al-Tikriti lying headless below the gallows, his severed head several yards away. "Yo, Mahmoud! Roll that thing over here, wouldja?" The Iraqi former President Saddam Hussein's half-brother Barzan al-Tikriti and former revolutionary court chief judge Awwad al-Bandar were hanged at dawn Monday in Baghdad. Saddam Hussein and his two aides were convicted of involvement in the killing of 148 civilians in the village of Dujail after a failed attempt to kill the former president. Any chance we can show that film on Saturday night at Gitmo? Meanwhile, Ali ali-Nashi reports from Kabalaa saying, Many people in the Shiite-holy town of Karbalaa considered the execution of Iraqi former President Saddam Hussein's top aides Barzan al-Tikriti and Awwad al-Bandar at dawn Monday a cause for great jubilation, while others showed indifference saying their death meant nothing in the face of current crises in Iraq. Saddam's half-brother Tikriti and former revolutionary court chief judge Bandar were hanged on Monday in Baghdad, 16 days after the execution of Saddam. The three were convicted of involvement in the killing of 148 civilians in the village of Dujail after a failed attempt to kill the former president. "It is a joy to get rid of every tyrant who killed Iraqis. This is the fate of every murderer and we have to understand the new Iraq can not be established with the presence of criminals and tyrants," Jamal al-Taai, a civil servant, said. Saleem al-Asadi, another civil servant, said the joy of the execution of the two aides came a little late. "The government should have executed Barzan and Bandar together with Saddam so that the joy is much bigger and we can say that we got rid of the criminals," he said. Revealing his personal vendetta against Bandar, Asadi said: "Bandar sentenced my brother to death, leaving mother to grieve over him until she died." Media worker Jihad al-Asadi said Monday's executions turned over a dark page in the history of Iraq. But Mohannad Hussein exclaimed, "What benefit will I get from the hanging of Barzan and Awwad?" "I no longer think of those people... I have to get through my day in conditions harsher than what some might think," he said. "I will be really happy when I find electricity, water and fuel available and prices affordable. Only then I will say that execution is useful," Hussein said. For Hussein al-Hasnawi, a former political prisoner, Iraqi people would not rest even if all the lackeys of the former regime were hanged. "The mistakes of today's politicians are far graver than the executions and the joy they bring," he explained.

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Iraq

Saddam aides 'to die this week'

2007-01-08

Moved to Monday for further discussion and commentary. AoS. HT AOSHq The Iraqi government has said that the executions of two senior associates of former leader Saddam Hussein, will take place some time during the week. "A day ending with a "y", but before the next round of NFL playoffs.." This is despite an appeal from the new UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, that they should not go ahead. "STFU" Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said the execution orders for Barzan al-Tikriti and Awad al-Bandar had been signed, and there was no way back. except down... Saddam Hussein's execution has led to a chorus of international criticism. from the usual Chorus I must be getting really old. My mind's going. For the life of me, I can't recall the usual suspects's chorus of international criticism for these beauzeaux' victims. Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, Saddam Hussein's intelligence chief, and Awad al-Bandar, a former chief judge, were convicted along with Saddam Hussein for their part in the killing of 148 Shia Muslims in the Iraqi village of Dujail in the 1980s. Mr Dabbagh said that while the government respected the UN's view, it also had to respect the victims of Saddam Hussein and his henchmen. Hmmm... Y'mean they can't recall, either? "hench-victims have rights too" "Certainly, the execution orders have been signed and are ready to be implemented," he said. "There are some technical preparations that need to take place in order to carry out the court's decision." an extra couple ropes... Saddam Hussein was hanged on 30 December amid chaotic scenes. UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, who had been criticised for saying nothing on the issue, has now joined the critics. What happened to his spine? Has Cheri removed it along with his balls? His officials now say the prime minister does believe the way Saddam Hussein was taunted and filmed before he was hanged was completely wrong. I'm not especially happy about it -- hanging should be a dignified affair for all the world to see -- but on a cosmic scale of things I think I've already gotten over it. Earlier, the man expected to succeed Mr Blair as prime minister, Chancellor Gordon Brown, described events at the execution as deplorable and completely unacceptable. as is your position, puss

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Iraq

Saddam appeals against death sentence

2006-12-04

LAWYERS for Saddam Hussein and two former aides sentenced to death lodged appeals today, the Iraqi prosecutor said, following a trial slammed by some rights experts as unfair and fundamentally flawed. The defence had been given until Tuesday to submit their appeals. The case is already with the appeals court, which will decide whether the hangings should be carried out. Meanwhile, Saddam is still on a trial for genocide against Kurds. Chief prosecutor Jaafar al-Moussawi said he had witnessed the handing over of the documents, although Saddam's chief lawyer said it had not yet happened. "Lawyers for Saddam Hussein and two others sentenced to death came to the court today and presented their appeals," chief prosecutor Jaafar al-Moussawi said. He said he had witnessed the handing over of the documents, although Saddam's chief lawyer said it had not yet happened. Saddam was sentenced to hang a month ago for crimes against humanity over the killings of 148 Shi'ites from the town of Dujail after he escaped assassination there in 1982. His half-brother Barzan al-Tikriti and former judge Awad al-Bander also received the death penalty for their part in the killing, torturing and deporting of hundreds of Dujailis. The nine-judge Appellate Chamber, which could amend both the verdict and the sentence, has unlimited time to make a ruling, but if the appeal fails, then Iraqi High Tribunal rules say the execution must follow a final decision within 30 days. Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, a member of the Shi'ite majority persecuted under Saddam's Sunni minority rule, has said he wants the execution carried out this year. Legal experts, however, have said appeals could yet take months and there is ambiguity about what constitutes the "final decision". New York-based Human Rights Watch condemned the verdict as unsound, saying the court had been guilty of so many shortcomings that a fair trial had been impossible. The tribunal has still to make public the reasoning for the November 5 death sentences, although it has promised to publish them on its website. The lengthy ruling is eagerly awaited by international jurists keen to assess how the court performed. But in a comprehensive report last month, New York-based Human Rights Watch condemned the verdict as unsound, saying the court had been guilty of so many shortcomings that a fair trial had been impossible. It said the court lacked the expertise for such a complex trial, had failed to give the defence advance notice of key documents, while statements by government officials had undermined its independence and perceived impartiality.

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Iraq

Ramsey Clark: executing Saddam will unleash catastrophic violence

2006-10-05

Ramsey Clark, a former US attorney general Do you have to keep bringing that up?who is one of Saddam Hussein's lawyers, said that any death sentence against the former Iraqi president would increase violence in the strife-torn country. "It seems clear that a guilty verdict will set off catastrophic violence" and that a death sentence would be even worse, Clark told a Washington press conference. "It's hard to know how many Iraqis, dozens, hundreds, thousands, will die because of the sentence," he said. A date for a verdict in the crimes against humanity trial against Saddam and seven co-accused, which opened in October, 2005, is due to be set soon after the trial resumes on October 16. If Saddam is found guilty and sentenced to death, Iraqi law lays down that he should be executed within 30 days, said Clark. The US attorney general from 1967-69 reaffirmed his belief that the court is illegal because it was set up only to try Saddam. He criticised the judges because they were "selected, trained, paid, protected by the United States." Which is the real reason. He will oppose anything the US supports or does. Saddam and his co-defendants, including a half brother Barzan al-Tikriti, are on trial for a crackdown on a Shiite town of Dujail following an assassination attempt in 1982. He faces a separate trial for genocide against Iraq's Kurdish minority in the 1988 Anfal campaign.

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Iraq

Sick Saddam taken to hospital

2006-07-23

IRAQ'S ousted president Saddam Hussein was admitted to hospital suffering from the effects of his hunger-strike, chief prosecutor Jaafar al-Musawi said. The detained leader, who stopped eating 16 days ago, is too ill to attend the next session of his trial. "Saddam Hussein has just been admitted to hospital because of his hunger strike. A medical report has established that he cannot appear tomorrow, because his condition needs medical attention," Mr al-Musawi said. Saddam's chief defence lawyer accused US military authorities of force-feeding the toppled leader to make him end his 16-day strike. "The US military are force feeding the president to break his will and end his hunger strike to protest against the trial and its illegality," Khalil Dulaimi said. Damned straight. We want him nice and plump for the hanging. He and three of his co-defendants have been refusing food since July 7, and last week the defence warned that their health was deteriorating. A spokesman for his US jailers, Lieutenant Colonel Keir Kevin Curry, said on July 13 the men had been refusing some meals but later said they were all in good health while getting extra medical attention. The three aides striking with Saddam are his former secret police chief and half-brother Barzan al-Tikriti, ex-vice president Taha Yassin Ramadan and head of the former revolutionary court Awad al-Bandar. It was Bandar's court which condemned the 148 villagers to death for the failed attack against Saddam. Let's strike a deal: al-Bandar can starve himself to death and we won't intervene. The rest get feeding tubes. Everybody plays, everybody wins. The hunger-strikers are protesting at the murders of three defence lawyers since the start of the trial in October last year, the first prosecution of the former Iraqi leader since he was ousted by a US-led invasion in April 2003. They are also protesting at the way the trial is being carried out by the Iraqi court and demanding what they call a fair tribunal.

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Iraq

Prosecution demands Saddam death

2006-06-19

The prosecution in the trial of ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein has called for his execution as it delivered its closing arguments. The prosecution said Saddam Hussein and two of his seven co-defendants should be put to death for war crimes. The trial has now adjourned and judges will consider their verdict after final defence arguments on 10 July. The defendants deny being responsible for the deaths of 148 Shia Muslim villagers in the 1980s. The men are accused of launching a crackdown in the village of Dujail after a failed assassination attempt on Saddam Hussein. In the trial of Saddam Hussein and seven former aides, all defendants were in court as proceedings resumed on Monday. Chief prosecutor Jaafar al-Mussawi said: "We demand the maximum punishment for Saddam, [his half-brother] Barzan al-Tikriti and [former vice-president] Taha Yassin Ramadan." "They were spreading corruption on Earth... and even the trees were not saved from their oppression," Mr Mussawi said. Saddam Hussein, dressed in a black suit, muttered sarcastically from the dock: "Well done." Mr Mussawi asked for charges against one defendant, Baath party official Mohammed Azawi Ali, to be dropped and for him to be freed. The prosecutor also asked for three other defendants - Baath officials Abdullah Kadhem Ruaid, Ali Daeem Ali and Mizher Abdullah Ruaid - to be treated leniently. Mr Mussawi made no specific calls on the fate of Awad Hamad al-Bandar, former chief judge of Saddam Hussein's revolutionary court. Another prosecution lawyer, whose name has not been released for security purposes, had opened Monday's proceedings by saying defendants had "carried out a systematic, wide-scale attack" in Dujail. "They carried out broad imprisonments of men, women and children, who were exposed to physical and mental torture, including the use of electrical shocks," he said. The lawyer argued that the assassination attempt had been "fabricated" for "political aims". The defence has argued the crackdown was necessary in the wake of an attempt to kill Saddam Hussein. It has also claimed that some of the 148 people the prosecution says were killed are still alive. The trial has so far lasted eight months and has been criticised by some international legal experts. Some said the defence had been given a disproportionately short period to present its witnesses. The trial has also been marred by the killing of two defence lawyers and the resignation of the first chief judge in January.

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Iraq

'Final day' for Saddam's defence

2006-06-13

The chief judge overseeing the trial of ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein has opened what he says will be the final day for defence witnesses to be heard. Judge Rauf Abdel Rahman urged the defence team to concentrate on witness testimony, not on "endless rhetoric". One of Saddam's seven co-defendants, his half-brother Barzan al-Tikriti, was barred from court, having been thrown out the day before. The former Iraqi intelligence chief had called the judge a "dictator". Judge Abdel Rahman said at the beginning of proceedings on Tuesday: "We have decided to exclude Barzan from today's session because of his repeated violations of the court rules." Saddam Hussein and his co-defendants are being tried in Baghdad for crimes against humanity in connection with the deaths of 148 Shia villagers in the 1980s. Recent sessions have been taken up with accounts by defence witnesses, but Judge Abdel Rahman said Tuesday's testimony would be the last. "I want to tell the defence attorneys that we are not going to listen to their endless rhetoric," he warned. "The session is to present their witnesses. They have to choose one of the options - either rhetoric or witnesses." The defence team has complained that it has not been allowed sufficient time to prepare and present its case. US lawyer Curtis Doebbler said on Monday that the defence was "at a serious disadvantage". "We want to work for justice, but that can only happen by having a fair trial and, under the current circumstances, that doesn't seem possible," Mr Doebbler said. He added that it took the prosecution more than five months to present its case, while the defence is being "rushed" to conclude within weeks. "Our witnesses have been intimidated by the court and have been assaulted," Mr Doebbler added. Once witness testimony is wrapped up, the defence and prosecution will make their closing statements, and then the judges will retire to consider their verdict. "Hanging, drawn and quartered, firing squad or all of the above?"

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Iraq

Uproar in court as judge ejects Saddam lawyer

2006-05-23

Iraqi guards at Saddam Hussein's trial manhandled a defense lawyer from the court on Monday before witnesses, including one of the former president's half-brothers, gave testimony for some of his co-defendants. Lebanese attorney Bushra Khalil, a vocal presence in previous televised appearances for the defense, yelled in protest and threw off her black court robe. "Are you a lawyer or a gang boss?" Judge Raouf Abdul Rahman barked at Khalil, who slapped the hand of a guard as he dragged her out of the chamber. "A gang boss. Why do you ask?" At the start of the hearing, Khalil had objected to her ejection from court in a previous session. After the argument with Abdul Rahman rose in pitch, he ordered her removed from court and described her behavior as "an insult to justice". Amid the clamor, Saddam stood to object and declared: "I am the president of Iraq", only to be told sharply by Abdul Rahman: "No you are a defendant." Saddam's half-brother Sabbawi Ibrahim al-Tikriti appeared as a witness to speak in defense of his own full brother Barzan al-Tikriti, Saddam's former intelligence chief. Sabbawi said he would also later testify for Saddam. He described himself as a "presidential adviser until April 9, 2003" -- the day Saddam fled U.S. forces invading Baghdad. Sabbawi, like his brothers Barzan and Watban, has been in U.S. custody. The three brothers are sons of Saddam's mother's second marriage.

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Iraq

Saddam trial resumes today with defence witnesses

2006-05-15

The trial of Saddam Hussein and seven co-defendants for crimes against humanity resumes on Monday with the presentation of the first Defence witnesses. Chief prosecutor Jaafar al-Mussawi told AFP it would be for the court to decide how many of the expected 60 Defence witnesses would be heard in the new session. "It is up to authorities to decide if all the witnesses will be heard in this session," Mussawi said. Saddam and his co-defendants, including his half brother and former head of intelligence Barzan al-Tikriti and former vice president Taha Yassin Ramadan, are on trial for their lives for the murder of 148 Shias from the village of Dujail in the mid-1980s. Under the Iraqi legal system, the court has yet to read specific charges against the defendants, expected soon in light of the past few months of testimony. At the end of a previous session, Saddam's lead attorney, Khalil al-Dulaimi submitted a list of witnesses for the Defence that had been kept secret for their protection.

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Iraq

Barzan denies involvement in Dujail massacre

2006-03-16

Saddam Hussein's half brother, Barzan al-Tikriti, on Wednesday denied involvement in mass reprisals ordered against a village after a failed 1982 assassination attempt there against the ousted Iraqi leader. "I arrested no one, it was the security services that were in charge" of operations in Dujail, Barzan said as the trial of Saddam and seven co-accused resumed before the Iraqi High Tribunal. "I can assure you I have no responsibility in this matter. It was handled by the former head of security who has since died. Just show me one document proving that I ordered an arrest or the destruction of someone's farm," he said.

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Iraq

Saddam to hang within months

2006-02-20

EFL Saddam Hussein could be executed within months if he is found guilty of ordering the massacre of 140 people from the town of Dujail, the chief prosecutor in the former Iraqi dictator's trial has said. And the ousted Iraqi dictator, who faces 11 other charges, will not be able to cheat the hangman by dragging out legal proceedings in a series of trials. The prosecutor, Ja'afar Moussawi, said that under a law passed late last year, all death sentences must be carried out within 30 days of an appeal failing, regardless of any other charges. "Once one of the accused on the Dujail case, for example, has been sentenced to death, then he won't be tried on other charges," Mr Moussawi said in an interview. "Other charges will automatically be dropped against that particular defendant, even if the case itself is brought against others." Mr Moussawi was reluctant to be drawn on how long the Dujail case, which began four months ago against Saddam and seven co-defendants, would take but said it had "passed the 75per cent mark". A panel of nine judges had already been selected to hear any appeal and the process was unlikely to take more than a month, he said. Under Iraqi law, it was not possible for a death sentence imposed on anyone -- including the former president -- to be commuted. The prosecutor's comments will be welcomed by many Shi'ites and Kurds exasperated by the slow pace of the trial and by its accelerating descent into farce as the accused repeatedly hurl insults at the judges. However, abandoning other trials that might shed light on Saddam's role in atrocities ranging from a poison gas attack that killed 5000 Kurds at Halabja in 1988 to the brutal suppression of a Shia uprising in southern Iraq in 1991 may dismay the relatives of those who died. According to one Kurdish group that searches for missing people, some women consider themselves still engaged to fiances who vanished decades ago, while many married women cannot accept they have become widows. Prosecutors selected the massacre carried out in the predominantly Shia town of Dujail for the first case against Saddam because it appeared relatively clear-cut anad easier to prove than those involving wider allegations of genocide. According to government officials, retaliation against the villagers was led by Barzan al-Tikriti, a half-brother of Saddam who was head of intelligence, and by Taha Yassin Ramadan, a former vice-president. They are also on trial. But the case has not proceeded as smoothly as prosecutors hoped. Although 26 witnesses have given heart-wrenching accounts of torture and imprisonment during the crackdown, proving that Saddam was directly responsible has been difficult. Last week, the prosecution produced documents that purported to show the former dictator had ordered the killings, and called two witnesses. Both complained that they had been made to testify and could not provide useful testimony. One, Fadhil al-Azzawi, a former ambassador in Moscow, said he had not even been in Iraq at the time. "I reject being a witness in this case because I do not have information," Mr Azzawi said. "I was forced to come to court." Three other former Saddam loyalists who were compelled to give evidence last week failed to corroborate most of the prosecution claims. Got any new batteries for the Surprise Meter? The defence claims the judge cannot be impartial because he was born in Halabja, the scene of the gas attack, and some of his relatives died. Just like robbery and rape victims are prejudices against their attackers. Lawyers also claim he was a member of a Kurdish party opposed to Saddam's regime and that he was convicted in absentia and given a life sentence in one of Saddam's courts in 1977. Several international human rights groups have criticised the handling of the trial and have argued that it should be moved to an international tribunal. Like the one dawdling on the Kmer Rouge?

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