In 2006, Iraqi authorities indicted former President Saddam Hussein on 14 counts. This "great trial of the century" has aroused the attention of many people. His team of lawyers, some people mysteriously died, some people were shot, the presiding judge was constantly changing, and the reasons for the change were inexplicable. In court, Saddam Hussein asked 2 questions, which made the judge dumbfounded. What questions did Saddam ask the judge?
Saddam Hussein
Before Saddam Hussein became a prisoner, he was also the number one person, which caused a lot of headaches for the United States. Born into a poor peasant family, his father died at a very young age and he was raised by his uncle. At the age of 10, he turned to his uncle Lara Turfa. His uncle was a nationalist, and under his arrangement and influence, Saddam Hussein joined the struggle against the pro-British colonialists, joining the left-leaning Party, the Baath Party at the age of 19. Within a few years, he was promoted from an ordinary party member to a regional deputy secretary, and his influence in the party grew.
In 1958, saddam Hussein, who was only 21 years old, was involved in a plan to assassinate King Faisal II. The following year, he assassinated Prime Minister Abdul Karim Qasim, and was sentenced to death by the Iraqi government in early 1960. In order to survive, he left Iraq overnight and fled to Syria, the birthplace of the Ba'ath Party. It was not until the Ba'ath Party staged a coup d'état in 1963 that Saddam Hussein returned to Iraq. However, because he opposed corruption within the party and offended the top brass, he almost died and fled Iraq. In October 1964, he was arrested and imprisoned, where he remained for 2 years.
In 1967, Saddam Hussein successfully escaped from prison with the help of the Ba'ath Party and gradually became the party's second-in-command. On 30 July of the following year, the Baath Party overthrew the Arif regime and Saddam Hussein was in charge of internal security. In fact, he had by this time become one of Iraq's main leaders, the de facto ruler of the country. Saddam Hussein was smart enough to use resources in Iraq to make the country stronger. Iraq is rich in oil resources, and he nationalizes foreign oil companies and uses the money he earns to develop his army, because he understands that only if a country has a strong army, it will not be invaded by other countries. Under Saddam Hussein's leadership, the army possessed a number of advanced weapons.
In mid-July 1979, Saddam Hussein assumed the presidency and became Iraq's supreme leader. The Iraqi people expressed their support for this, because he made the people have more money in their pockets and the standard of living has improved a lot. At the time, Saddam Hussein had many supporters. But what they did not expect was that after Saddam Hussein came to power, he actually implemented a dictatorship and purged the opposition. What makes them even more desperate is that Saddam Hussein has dragged Iraq into the quagmire of war again and again. From the "Iran-Iraq War" to the "Gulf War", the Iraqi people have fallen into turmoil.
Externally, Saddam Hussein has shown a strong anti-American and anti-Western stance, and his relations with the United States and other Western countries are tense. He has tried to use Iraq's abundant oil as capital to build a new monetary system, thus breaking the hegemony of the dollar. After World War II, the United States used oil-dollar-gold to build a set of international monetary system, stipulating that international oil trade and gold trading must be settled in US dollars, making the US dollar an international currency, laying the foundation for the status of the US dollar, and making a lot of contributions to the hegemonism of the United States.
In addition, Saddam Hussein's Iraq has close ties with the Soviet Union, the old enemy of the United States. In order to protect its interests in the Middle East, the Soviet Union decided to co-opt Iraq and replace Egypt. In 1971, the Soviet Union provided $600 million in economic aid to Iraq, and the following year the two countries signed a treaty of friendship and cooperation. After Saddam Hussein came to power, relations between the Soviet Union and Iraq were further strengthened. In 1979, Iraq placed an arms order worth hundreds of millions of dollars from the Soviet Union, buying 240 fighter jets, including the MiG-25 Foxbat, the most advanced air superiority fighter, as well as helicopters.
The Soviet side accepted the order, but made a request to allow 18,000 "Soviet advisers" to follow the plane to Iraq and station troops in Iraq in disguise. Considering that Iraq only had 24,000 air forces and was in dire need of increasing its air force, Saddam Hussein agreed to the Soviets' demands. In fact, Iraq purchased arms from the Soviet Union in preparation for launching the "Iran-Iraq War."
At the same time, the United States is also coveting Iraq's oil resources in an attempt to prop up a puppet regime in the country and then turn oil into the United States. For various reasons, the Americans have always wanted to get rid of Saddam Hussein. To this end, they support the Iraqi opposition and plot against officials of Saddam Hussein's government. On February 5, 2003, powell, then U.S. Secretary of State, pulled out a reagent bottle containing white powder at the United Nations Security Council, claiming that "Iraq is developing chemical weapons and weapons of mass destruction, and Saddam Hussein can kill tens of thousands of people with this anthrax." Subsequently, the United States, Britain and other countries demanded that Saddam Hussein hand over chemical weapons, otherwise Iraq would face war.
Saddam Hussein did not accept the proposal of the United States and the British, and on March 20, the two countries blatantly launched the "Iraq War" under the pretext that "Saddam Hussein's government possesses weapons of mass destruction and colludes with terrorists", and carried out a large bombing campaign against Iraq, resulting in countless innocent civilian casualties. Saddam Hussein organized a military revolt, still not a rival to the Anglo-American army, and was soon defeated, and he fled to his hometown of Tikrit with his two sons and the "Saddam Death Squad". The Anglo-American coalition searched Iraq and found no second bottle of white powder. What exactly was in the reagent bottle that Powell took out, I am afraid that only the Americans themselves know, this incident is jokingly called the "washing powder incident".
Saddam Hussein hid in Tikrit, changing his hiding place every few days, and handing over the death squad to his youngest son, Kussay, in the hope of making a comeback. Not long after, the two sons died at the gun of the US army, the cronies around him died, and the people around him fled, and there were fewer and fewer people around him. Among them, a bodyguard named Mustra was captured by the U.S. military, and in order to get what the Americans said was a reward of $25 million, he did not hesitate to betray Saddam Hussein and say where Saddam husson was hiding.
On December 13, 2003, U.S. troops captured Saddam Hussein, ragged and bearded, in the cellar of a farmhouse in Tikrit. Immediately afterward, the U.S. military humiliated and beat him in turn and put him in prison. Although the United States listed him as a prisoner of war on January 10, 2004, and claimed that he would receive the treatment and rights of prisoners of war, in fact the US military did not abide by the Geneva Conventions, and tortured Saddam Hussein every day for pleasure and mistreating him.
Saddam Hussein was handed over to the Iraqi interim government on June 30 after more than half a year of inhuman torture by U.S. forces, which declared him no longer a prisoner of war. It is worth mentioning that the supporters behind this government are Americans. The Special Court of the Interim Government of Iraq arrested Saddam Hussein on the same day and remains guarded by U.S. forces.
On 19 October, the Iraqi Special Court filed 14 charges against Saddam Hussein, focusing on the Dujar Village case. In 1982, he was assassinated once, but the other side was unsuccessful. Afterwards, Saddam Hussein massacred 143 Shia Muslims in the village of Dujar. Saddam Hussein was tried for crimes against humanity and read out an indictment, refusing to admit guilt and not signing court documents. At the time, his defense lawyer was not present. Subsequently, his first wife, Sajida, brought in an international team of lawyers to defend him.
Curiously, one of Saddam's lawyers, Saadun Sagill Janabbi, was kidnapped in his office and died a few days later. Not long after, another lawyer named Zubaidi was shot. The lawyer in charge of his trial, who had gone to England a few months earlier for secret training, could emigrate to Britain or the United States after his trial. Before Saddam Hussein was tried, the Iraqi interim government abruptly announced the reinstatement of the death penalty, which had previously been abolished by the U.S. military. A series of bizarre incidents led him to question the impartiality of the Special Court, believing that it was deliberately used by Americans to deal with themselves and their subordinate institutions. Their purpose is to kill themselves.
In one trial, Saddam Hussein confronted the judge directly in court, asking the other side: "The court is just and neutral, and under Iraqi law, prosecutors have no right to dismiss judges, so why do you want to dismiss Abdullah Amiri?" "Here's the thing, in the course of the special court's trial of Saddam Hussein, the presiding judge changed people several times, and the reason was inexplicable. Lizg Mohammed Amin, who had served as presiding judge, was soon removed because he had spent too much time defending Saddam Hussein during the trial and the Special Court found him unfit for the position. In fact, Amin did not favor anyone, but did what he should do as a judge, but was judged to be unfit for trial and resigned.
Abdullah Amiri was also removed because the Special Court found his trial of Saddam Hussein to be too moderate. On that occasion, the court accused Saddam Hussein of being a dictator, with witnesses claiming that he had asked the former president 20 years ago to spare his relatives. To this, his answer is that if he is a dictator, why do witnesses still want to meet with him? At this time, Amiri said: "You are not a dictator, it is the people around you who make you look like a dictator." "In the eyes of the United States and the interim government, Amiri speaking for Saddam Hussein is not suitable for trial, so he has also been replaced." Saddam Hussein's rhetorical questioning in court left the presiding judge dumbfounded.
Saddam Hussein's defence counsel had challenged the legitimacy of the Special Court, but the presiding judge insisted on continuing the trial, and the lawyers walked out of the courtroom in protest, forcing the trial to end. Saddam Hussein also shouted in court: "I will not come back to this unjust court, you all give me a damn!" "He tried to rebel against the Special Court by refusing to appear in court, but to no avail, and his trial continued.
In another trial, Saddam Hussein asked the presiding judge: "During my reign, if an Iraqi woman is humiliated, the next day the criminal, regardless of the country, will be kept in prison." Why is this not the case in Iraq today? This question of his once again left the well-tongued judges speechless.
Yes, although Saddam Hussein ruled Iraq under dictatorship, the Iraqi people's life was still good, with per capita GDP ranking among the best, and their lives were relatively stable. What was the life of iraqis after Saddam Hussein's fall? Every day, there is constant war. After the American soldiers came to Iraq, they violated many Iraqi women, and no one made the decision for them and punished the murderers. The Iraqi interim government is unreliable because they still rely on the United States to stabilize the situation and dare not say anything to the US military. Without Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi people can never return to their former lives.
On December 21, 2005, Saddam Hussein accused U.S. troops of beating and torturing himself in court and being mistreated by U.S. forces. The White House rejected his claims, and the presiding judge dismissed his allegations on the grounds that he had no evidence to prove himself. Apparently, the Special Court stands with the Americans.
On February 13, 2006, Saddam Hussein shouted "Down with Bush" in front of the judge. This great trial of the century has gradually become a farce. The next day, he began a hunger strike to defy the court's unfair trial of him. He held out for 11 days and then gave up. Maybe it's because he knows that no matter how much he struggles, he can't change the result and change his attitude. On 1 March, Saddam Hussein admitted that he had personally ordered revenge on villagers in the village of Dujar after his assassination.
But Saddam Hussein refused to acknowledge the court's allegations against him of ordering the Iraqi Interior Ministry to kill thousands of Iraqis. Even if the Special Court produced a document with his signature, he did not recognize it, but instead asked international bodies to authenticate the signatures on the documents. The result of the appraisal was that Saddam Hussein's signature on the document was genuine, and Saddam Hussein and the defence counsel did not recognize this fact under various pretexts. On June 21, his lead defense lawyer, Hamis O'Bédi, was kidnapped and killed by militants. The defence lawyer died suddenly again, Saddam Hussein protested by hunger strikes, refusal to appear in court, and the special court conducted the trial directly without him. On 23 July, he was taken to the hospital for a hunger strike. On the 26th, Saddam Hussein appeared at the scene of the trial and said that if he was sentenced to death, he hoped that it would be a shooting, not a hang. Because hanging was a symbol of dishonor, he wanted to die a decent death.
On November 5, Saddam Hussein ushered in the final trial. The Special Court sentenced him to death by hanging for crimes against humanity and murder. Saddam's team of lawyers appealed against the verdict, and the Iraqi Court of Appeal declared that Saddam Hussein's trial had been completed, upholding the previous judgment and not appealing again. On December 30, Saddam Hussein, the "lion of the Middle East", was hanged, ending his legendary life. And this day is the very important "Eid al-Adha" of Islam. The Iraqi authorities chose to execute Saddam Hussein on this day, causing great dissatisfaction in the Arab world. Saddam Hussein is known to have been taken to a place in northern Baghdad for a secret execution after being put on a hood. He was calm the whole time, did not struggle, did not show fear, and kept saying "Down with the United States, down with Iran, down with Israel."
Iraq after Saddam's death, as he said when he was alive — Iraq without me, worthless. According to 2019 data, 20 percent of Iraq's people are struggling below the poverty line, a quarter of its youth are unemployed, and more than 24 million people spend less than $6 a day, making Iraq a poor country. It is hard to imagine that Iraq in the 1980s already had highways and a high gdp per capita in the Middle East. The tremendous changes in Iraq were caused by the United States, and the United States bears an unshirkable responsibility for them. One day, this country that practices hegemonism everywhere, provokes war everywhere, and bullies the weak and small will collapse!