NI lawyer criticises Saddam trial

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/northern_ireland/6119012.stm

Version 0 of 1.

A Londonderry solicitor who advised Saddam Hussein's legal team has criticised the court that sentenced the former Iraqi dictator to death.

Saddam Hussein was convicted over the killing of 148 people in the mainly Shia town of Dujail following an assassination attempt on him in 1982.

His half-brother Barzan al-Tikriti and Iraq's former chief judge Awad Hamed al-Bandar were also sentenced to death.

However, lawyer Des Doherty said the court lacked legitimacy.

"This court was a completely illegitimate creation, mainly created by the American and British authorities.

"It is not a complete Iraqi court. All the work that goes on and all the judgement that was made was really handed down, as far as we can see, by the Americans," he said.

Mr Doherty was also involved in the Northern Ireland Bloody Sunday inquiry into the deaths of civilians on a protest march in Londonderry in 1972.

Saddam Hussein and his co-defendants will be given the right to appeal, but that is expected to take only a few weeks and to end in failure for the defendants.