Saddam receives justice he denied others

Thursday, December 28, 2006

Even in war-torn Iraq, a crude form of justice can prevail.

That's the main lesson to draw from the ruling Tuesday by Iraq's highest appeals court that upheld the death sentence for Saddam Hussein.

The trial was hardly a model of jurisprudence. A series of delays and diversions by the former dictator and his lawyers kept the key defendant out of the courtroom for weeks at a time. Meddling by the fledgling government - which demanded both a quick trial and a guilty verdict - and the kidnapping and murder of one of Saddam's lawyers during the proceedings, cast a pall over the process.

And yet no one doubted Saddam's guilt - for this, if not many more crimes against humanity. His bureaucracy kept a meticulous paper trail of the regime's atrocities, and thousands of survivors of his brutality still live.

Indeed, had Saddam somehow wriggled free from these charges, he next faced a trial for ordering bombing and gassing raids that slaughtered 180,000 Kurds.

There's a sense of irony, though, that Saddam received the death sentence nearly two months ago for one of his lesser offenses: commanding the systematic execution in 1982 of 148 Shiite men and boys who happened to live in a village where gunmen had tried to assassinate Saddam and his personal guards.

Within 30 days, Saddam and three co-defendants will be hanged. The tyrant will then face the justice he denied so many.