In Iraq, US hands over Tariq Aziz, other Saddam Hussein-era officials

Today the US transferred to Iraq almost all the prisoners it has held in custody for seven years, including Tariq Aziz and other officials in Saddam Hussein's regime that were featured in a "most wanted" deck-of-cards. But some former officials remain in limbo – waiting to be tried in a special court.

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The fate of some of the detainees has become a political football. The most controversial is Saddam Hussein’s former defense minister, Hashim Sultan. Persuaded by Gen. David Petraeus to give himself up in 2003, he was sentenced to death four years later – a ruling which threatened already tense Sunni-Shiite relations and which Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said he would not sign.

Balancing justice and speed

But after seven years in detention, the court says it is still investigating the charges against Rasheed and can’t say when the case might come to trial.

“It’s true that our law says there should be a quick and fair trial, but we should ensure that speed and justice are balanced,” says Judge Mohammad Abdulsahib Yasseen, the court spokesman. He says there is no time limit for a case to be brought to trial, unlike in Hussein's era.

Mr. Aziz, the former deputy prime minister, was one of the officials convicted by the high court in the 1992 execution of 42 merchants accused of manipulating prices while Iraq was under sanctions. Aziz, who was part of Saddam’s Revolutionary Command Council which rubber-stamped the decision, was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

“We are terrified of time limits – in the previous regime we had to work according to time limits. In the cases of the merchants, for instance, we had a 36-hours time limit starting from detaining them or arresting them until they were executed,” says Yasseen, a lawyer for more than a decade before the war who was not personally involved in the merchants' prosecution.

Prisoners could be assets in reconciliation process

Cannon says he believes that some of the former regime officials’ futures will become clearer once Iraq resolves the gridlock that’s followed March elections.

“It will be a lot easier to decide what’s going to happen with them once a new government is formed,” says Cannon, referring to the handful of prisoners – including eight former regime officials – Iraq has asked the US to retain. “We’re sort of in this holding pattern right now. I would consider the five death-sentence detainees as ... prisoners who could have a lot of effect on things that are going on out there. I think the concern is we don’t want it to become a political issue.”

But although the process began with the US, deciding what happens to former regime officials will be a uniquely Iraqi process, says former US ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker.

“I would hope particularly in the case of Amer Rasheed they would see him as ... someone that could be an asset in the reconciliation process,” says Mr. Crocker, contacted in Washington. “We can steer and guide it but this will be a profoundly Iraqi issue against a backdrop of decades of the Saddam era.”

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