Forget Scott Peterson; Take a Hike, Kobe…
The preliminaries for the real trial of this young century are getting underway this Thursday (and I'm not talking about Phil Spector or Robert Blake). Reuters reports:
Saddam Hussein will be handed over to Iraqi justice Wednesday, two days after the country regained sovereignty from Washington, but U.S. soldiers will still guard him to ensure he does not escape.
Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said Tuesday Saddam and up to 11 top members of his ousted government would appear before Iraqi judges to be charged Thursday, although a trial was still months away.
Saddam would be charged with crimes against humanity for a 1988 massacre of Kurds, the 1990 invasion of Kuwait and the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, said Salem Chalabi, a lawyer leading the work of a tribunal that will try the former Iraqi leader.
Saddam's lawyer is already rebutting the case in the press, trying to delegitimize the process by claiming, "It will be a court of vengeance, a settling of scores." No duh.
Whole thing here.