Former US Ambassador to Iraq Admits Trial of Saddam Hussein Was Flawed

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The trial of Saddam Hussein and his co-defendants had many violations and was "not perfect", Robert Ford, former US ambassador to Iraq, told Sputnik ahead of the 15th anniversary of Saddam's execution.

"The trial itself certainly had problems, no question. Some of the defence lawyers were assassinated, which was terrible. During the trial itself, sometimes the prosecution introduced evidence without allowing the defence to see it first so that the defence was surprised by the new evidence", Ford recounted.

At the same time, the prosecution did find many documents signed by Saddam Hussein and other defendants, which directly implicated them in the charges of the Dujail massacres and killings, according to the former ambassador.

"So there was really no question that Saddam and the co-defendants were guilty of the crimes, but the process itself was certainly not perfect", Ford said.

Former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was executed on 30 December 2006, on the night before the start of one of the most important Muslim holidays, Eid al-Adha.

In this file photo taken Wednesday, April 9, 2003, an Iraqi man, bottom right, watches Cpl. Edward Chin of the 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines Regiment, cover the face of a statue of Saddam Hussein with an American flag before toppling the statue in downtown in Baghdad, Iraq.

© AP Photo / Jerome Delay

Saddam Hussein managed to avoid capture for six months after the United States invaded Iraq under the pretext of searching for weapons of mass destruction in 2003. In December of that year, he was finally arrested near his hometown of Tikrit. The first hearing of the special tribunal took place in July 2004. The court found Hussein guilty on the charges and sentenced him to death by hanging on 5 November 2006.