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Bush says Saddam to get fair trial in Iraq

Posted on: Monday, 24 October 2005, 20:50 CDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush said on Monday Saddam Hussein will get a fair trial in Iraq, where a fledgling democracy must show the international community and its citizens that it has a fair judicial system.

He said the trial of the former Iraqi president for crimes against humanity, which opened on October 19 and adjourned until November 28, should move forward.

U.S.-led forces toppled Saddam's government in 2003 after invading Iraq, which the Bush administration had said posed a threat because it had stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction. No such weapons were found in postwar Iraq.

"There will be a fair trial. The question is whether or not there's the courage to go ahead with the trial," Bush said in an interview with Al Arabiya television.

"And I think the people of Iraq would like to see Saddam Hussein tried for the crimes he committed," Bush said, according to a transcript released by the White House.

Bush said he did not support an international trial for Saddam because it was important for Iraq to have a justice system that earned the confidence of its people.

"This is a new democracy, and part of a democracy is to have a fair judicial system. And I thought it was very important for the ... citizens of Iraq to conduct the trial in such a way that it earned international respect," Bush said.

A defense lawyer for one of Saddam's seven co-defendants was abducted and killed last week after the trial began. Saddam and his co-defendants are being tried in the killing of 148 Shi'ite men from the town of Dujail.

"I think the trial needs to go forward," Bush said.

On Iraq's planned December election, Bush said: "The United States will not pick a winner. That's going to be up to the Iraqi people. Our mission will be to encourage all people to participate in the process."

Source: REUTERS

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