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| |  | | Awad Hamed al-Bander | | | context : | Iraq  | | judgement place : | Iraqi Special Court | | status : | Sentenced | | particulars : | Trial before the Iraqi High Tribunal (Dujail): sentenced to death by hanging on 5 November 2006; appeal lodged on 3 December 2006; sentence confirmed on 26 December 2006; executed by hanging on 15 January 2007 | | position : | Chief justice of the of the Iraqi Revolutionary Court |
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| | | | On 30 June 2004, Awad Hamed al-Bander was formally handed over to the Iraqi Government (he has not been physically handed over, as no adequate Iraqi prison exists yet). He was indicted on 1 July 2004.
Awad Hamed al-Bander is being tried by the Trial Chamber No. 1 of Court No. 1 in Baghdad’s Green Zone. The subject of the trial is the 1982 massacre of more than 140 Shiites in the village of Dujail near Baghdad.
Trial proceedings started on 19 October 2005.
Awad Hamed al-Bander is accused, together with seven other former officials (ex-president Saddam Hussein, Taha Yassin Ramadan, Barzan Ibrahim Al-Tikriti, Abdullah Kadhem Ruaid, Ali Daeem Ali, Mohammed Azawi Ali, Mizher Abdullah Rawed, see "related cases"), of taking part in the killing of 140 Shiite inhabitants of the village of Dujail, 60 km north of Baghdad, in July 1982. The indictment contains charges of crimes against humanity according to article 12 of the statute of the Iraqi Special Tribunal, issued on 10 December 2003.
According to the indictment, the victims were killed in the course of a retaliation campaign following the attack on the president’s motorcade. Furthermore, the indictment states that hundreds of women and children had been held in camps in the desert and that date plantations which formed the basis of the local economy and the livelihood of the families living there were destroyed.
Awad Hamed al-Bander pleaded not guilty.
At the request of the defence, the trial was adjourned until 28 November 2005 to allow more time for the preparation of the defence.
Abdullah Kadhem Ruaid might face the death penalty if convicted.
In the weeks following the first audience, serious security concerns for the defense team of Hussein and the other accused became apparent. 36 hours after the first hearing, a group of unidentified armed men dragged one of the attorneys from his office in east Baghdad and shot him dead. A few days later, the second lawyer was killed in a drive-by shooting, and a third, injured in that attack, subsequently fled Iraq for sanctuary in Qatar.
As a consequence, calls for the trial to be held abroad were heard. The defense lawyers, supported by the Iraqi Bar Association, imposed a boycott on the trial, until their security concerns were met with specific measures.
A few days before the trial was to resume, the defense team announed that it had accepted offers of protection from Iraqi and American officials and would appear in Court on 28 November. The agreement is said to include the same level of protection that is offered to the Iraqi judges and Prosecutors, with measures such as armored cars and teams of bodyguards.
After a short Court session on 28 November, during which some testimony regarding the killings in Dujail was presented, Judge Rizgar Mohammed Amin ordered a one-week adjournment until Dec. 5, to grant the defence teams time to find new counsel after one of their lawyers was killed and another fled Iraq.
On March 12, 2006, the Prosecutor announced that if Saddam Hussein and his seven co-defendants were sentenced to death in the Dujail case, the sentence would be carried out as soon as possible. Thus, the other cases for which they are indicted would not be heard in court.
On June 19, 2006, the Prosecutor indeed asked the court, in his closing arguments, that the death penalty be imposed upon Taha Yassine Ramadan, Saddam Hussein and Barzan al-Tikriti.
The trial was adjourned after the closing arguments of the defence.
On 5 November 2006, Awad Hamed al-Bander was sentenced to death by hanging. A death sentence or life imprisonment generates an automatic appeal.
On 3 December 2006, the defence team lodged an appeal against the verdicts for Saddam Hussein, Awad Hamed Al-Bander and Barzan Ibrahim Al-Tikriti, who had been sentenced to death.
On 26 December 2006, the appeals chamber confirmed the death sentence against Awad Hamed al-Bander.
Awad Hamed al-Bander was executed by hanging on 15 January 2007. | |    | | Trial Watch would like to remind its users that any person charged by national or international authorities is presumed innocent until proven guilty. | |  |  | | last time seen : | | | Baghdad (Iraq) | | | period of charges : | | | 08.07.1982 | | | judgement period : | | | 19.10.2005 | | | charges : | | | Crimes against humanity | | | profile last modified : | | | 15.01.2007 |
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