The Independent
Robert Fisk
The presumption of guilt is just one of Saddam's creation that has outlived the dictator
Saddam is Dead! Long live Saddam! And glancing through the grisly list of executions which the new, free, democratic, American-constructed Iraq has carried out - about 500 all told, and rising - Saddamism is flourishing in the land of the two rivers. Last year alone, 1,200 men and women were on death row, most of them sentenced after the usual pre-trial confessions under torture.
In fact their court appearances were preceded, in many cases, by television interviews in which they admitted to their "crimes". And sure enough, another 26 "terrorists" were executed in Baghdad last week as the country's Shia Muslim prime minister tried to smother the Sunni revolt against him.
All too truly does the British lawyer Akhtar Raja speak when he tells journalists that "the tradition of relying on confessions in court is deeply rooted in the Iraqi psyche". This is another of Saddam's creations that has passed on seamlessly to his elected successors: the presumption of guilt. When a villainous rogue appeared on Iraqi television in the days of the Great Leader, did anyone dare to imagine that the man was innocent? So too today. "When you go to Iraq and talk to people there, even liberal, well-educated people who you'd think would say the opposite, they seem to think it's perfectly all right to have these confessions," Raja says. He is being too kind. Many Iraqis tell me that they insist on capital punishment, even if there is a chance the victim is innocent.
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Robert Fisk
The presumption of guilt is just one of Saddam's creation that has outlived the dictator
Saddam is Dead! Long live Saddam! And glancing through the grisly list of executions which the new, free, democratic, American-constructed Iraq has carried out - about 500 all told, and rising - Saddamism is flourishing in the land of the two rivers. Last year alone, 1,200 men and women were on death row, most of them sentenced after the usual pre-trial confessions under torture.
In fact their court appearances were preceded, in many cases, by television interviews in which they admitted to their "crimes". And sure enough, another 26 "terrorists" were executed in Baghdad last week as the country's Shia Muslim prime minister tried to smother the Sunni revolt against him.
All too truly does the British lawyer Akhtar Raja speak when he tells journalists that "the tradition of relying on confessions in court is deeply rooted in the Iraqi psyche". This is another of Saddam's creations that has passed on seamlessly to his elected successors: the presumption of guilt. When a villainous rogue appeared on Iraqi television in the days of the Great Leader, did anyone dare to imagine that the man was innocent? So too today. "When you go to Iraq and talk to people there, even liberal, well-educated people who you'd think would say the opposite, they seem to think it's perfectly all right to have these confessions," Raja says. He is being too kind. Many Iraqis tell me that they insist on capital punishment, even if there is a chance the victim is innocent.
Read more
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