The Iraqi High Tribunal should not impose the death penalty against former Iraqi Vice-President Taha Yassin Ramadan, especially given the lack of evidence linking him to the alleged crimes, Human Rights Watch and the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) said today. The Dujail Trial Chamber is expected to hold a hearing today to determine whether Ramadan’s life sentence should be increased to death.
In a 300-page judgment issued on November 5, 2006, the tribunal’s Trial Chamber found Ramadan guilty of crimes against humanity and sentenced him to life imprisonment. Defense counsel appealed this decision on December 5. On December 26, the tribunal’s Appeals Chamber issued a 17-page judgment confirming Ramadan’s conviction and, without giving any reasons, returned the case to the Trial Chamber to increase the penalty to a death sentence.
“The tribunal found Ramadan guilty without evidence linking him to the horrific crimes committed in Dujail,” said Richard Dicker, director of the International Justice Program at Human Rights Watch. “Ramadan was convicted in an unfair trial, and increasing his punishment from life imprisonment to death reeks of vengeance.”
In November 2006, Human Rights Watch issued a report, "Judging Dujail: The First Trial Before the Iraqi High Tribunal", that highlighted a number of serious flaws in the Dujail trial, including the lack of evidence linking Ramadan to the underlying criminal acts. That same month, the ICTJ issued “Dujail: Trial and Error?", in which it also raised concerns about the fairness of the trial proceedings, including actions by the Iraqi government that threatened the Iraqi High Tribunal’s independence and impartiality from the outset.
The two reports also highlighted the tribunal’s failures to disclose key evidence to the defense, violations of the defendants’ right to question prosecution witnesses, and the presiding judge’s demonstrations of bias. The findings of the two reports were based on 10 months of observation, dozens of interviews with judges, prosecutors and defense lawyers, and an analysis of the evidence presented in the case, conducted by Human Rights Watch and the ICTJ.
The Ba’ath Party’s “Popular Army” militia was alleged to have arrested suspects and delivered them to the custody of the General Intelligence Directorate and the General Security Directorate following the assassination attempt against Saddam Hussein in Dujail in 1982. Ramadan was the national commander of the Popular Army, yet no evidence was presented at trial concerning the army’s command structure, the actual and legal authority of Ramadan as army commander, his relationship to the army’s operational commander on the ground in Dujail, and the reporting lines between Ramadan and his subordinates. Instead, the judgment relies heavily on broad inferences drawn from Ramadan’s superior position and proximity to Saddam Hussein, who was convicted and swiftly hanged for his role in the Dujail killings.
“The Appeals Chamber of the Iraqi High Tribunal acted too hastily and did not conduct a serious review of the evidentiary and fairness shortcomings in the Dujail trial,” said Miranda Sissons, head of the ICTJ’s Iraq Program. “Instead of a sound verdict, the victims were dealt a flawed process. Executing Taha Yassin Ramadan will further deprive them of the chance to see him face justice for other egregious crimes.”
Human Rights Watch has spent nearly two decades documenting the widespread human rights violations committed by the former Iraqi government of Saddam Hussein and campaigning for those responsible to be brought to justice. These violations include the killing of more than 100,000 Iraqi Kurds in northern Iraq as part of the 1998 Anfal campaign . The victims, including women, children and the elderly, were selected because they were Kurds who remained on their traditional lands in zones outside of areas controlled by Baghdad.
The ICTJ worked in Iraq prior to the beginning of the Dujail trial and since then has played a crucial role in monitoring the trial, evaluating the trial dossiers, and corresponding with tribunal staff.
Both organizations are opposed to the death penalty in all circumstances, as it is an inherently cruel and inhuman punishment.
