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By Christine Hauser
REUTERS
www.reuters.com
May 8, 2003

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BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq's court system was reborn on Thursday when a group of suspects was led handcuffed to hearings guarded by American forces for the first criminal law proceedings since the fall of Saddam Hussein.

In what could be another development in the post-war Iraqi legal system, a senior U.S. adviser to Iraq's Justice Ministry said a special chamber could be set up in Iraq to try those who have committed crimes against the Iraqi people.

Asked if this could include trying Saddam Hussein, former deputy prime minister Tareq Aziz or other government officials detained or sought by the United States, Clint Williamson said:

'There is a broad (U.S. and Iraqi) consensus that people who committed crimes previously against the Iraqi people should be tried within the Iraqi system.'

'In all probability we will see some sort of special chamber set up within the Iraqi system composed of Iraqi judges using Iraqi prosecutors who will handle this,' he told reporters.

The United States has a list of 55 wanted former Iraqi government officials. It has detained about one-third of them.

'When you start doing prosecutions on a scale of crimes that might have been committed all over the country,' it would overwhelm the regular court system, Williamson told Reuters.

He said the work of the special chamber, if it comes about, will 'be governed more by the acts they (suspects) were involved in rather than who they are.'

On Thursday, two courts in Baghdad held proceedings to decide whether to pursue formal investigations and court cases against 13 men suspected of crimes from murder to robbery to arson, marking the relaunch of the legal system.

'Today is an important day in the return to a functioning civil society here in Iraq,' said Williamson.

NEW EFFORTS FOR LAW AND ORDER

A new Iraqi police force is still trying to find its feet on the streets of Iraq's capital and keep down the looting and lawlessness that has plagued Baghdad. Looters have trashed government and private buildings, including courts and records.

Reporters were allowed into hearings. One man suspected of looting government cars was led to a room at Adhamiya court and questioned without a lawyer. He wore a dirty exercise suit. His handcuffs were removed before he stood in front of the desk.

'I heard gunfire and ran. I was mistaken for being among a group of looters and then arrested,' he said. He showed his identity card, signed his statement and returned to detention.

Williamson said Iraq's 1969 criminal law was being applied but some amendments added under Saddam's rule, such as the one making 'insulting the president' a crime, would be abolished.

He told reporters the 13 detainees were arrested by U.S. soldiers, Iraqi police or joint patrols. There was no figure for the total number of criminal detainees.

Asked whether there was some 'injustice' in the fact that some of the Iraqis now applying the law were Baath party appointees, Williamson said criminal justice work was mostly carried out by judges separate from those who presided in Saddam's 'parallel system' of courts for political detainees.

He defined these as revolutionary, military, intelligence and Baathist courts. 'So in fact to a large degree the justice ministry was relegated to a role of dealing with cases which the regime had very little interest in.'

An Iraqi man outside the court said the judges used to demand bribes. 'I have a case pending here. It's the same old faces,' he said. Williamson said judges would have a 'legitimate' role.