Iraq postpones amnesty announcement

Baghdad - Iraq's interim government delayed indefinitely an announcement on a possible partial-amnesty deal for low-level insurgents, a spokesman for interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi said Monday.

Sunday, government spokesman George Sada told CNN that none of the "hard-core" criminals -- including those accused of murder -- would be eligible for amnesty. Only those who were "misled" by the leaders of the insurgency would qualify, he said.

However, many questions about a possible amnesty remain, including who would be covered by such a deal and how strict it would be.

The interim government hopes to use a limited amnesty to weaken the ties within the insurgency between the former Baathist regime of Saddam Hussein and the militants, seen as a growing alliance.

Iraqi official sources have told CNN that an amnesty could cover 5,000 supporters of Saddam Hussein's former regime who are involved in the insurgency against Americans and the interim government. In exchange, they would be asked to disarm and for information leading to the capture or killing of insurgency leaders.

It was not clear if an amnesty would cover Muqtada al-Sadr, the Shiite Muslim cleric charged by an Iraqi court in the April 2003 murder of a rival. His Mehdi Army militia has battled U.S. and other coalition troops for weeks in the southern Iraqi cities of Najaf and Karbala and the surrounding area.

Al-Sadr on Friday denounced the interim government in Iraq as no different from the U.S. occupation.

Still, Allawi said on ABC's "This Week" in a taped interview broadcast Sunday that al-Sadr had told the interim government through an intermediary that he wanted to participate in Iraq's new political process.

Attacks continue

On Monday, eight Iraqi civilians were wounded in two roadside bomb attacks in attempts to target members of the Iraqi army and Iraqi police force in Baghdad, an Interior Ministry official said.

According to Col. Adnan Abdul Rahman, seven people were wounded in a bombing in central Baghdad's al-Yarmouk district. He said the attack missed an Iraqi army convoy.

In the other attack, one Iraqi was wounded when a roadside bomb in the Silahk district of northern Baghdad missed an Iraqi police patrol.

In Basra, a mortar attack near a British military camp killed one Iraqi and wounded two others, an Iraqi police official said.

Six mortar rounds hit different houses in the al-Ashar district, according to Col. Ali Abdullah. He said the attackers apparently were targeting the camp but missed.

In Mosul, a roadside bomb wounded five Iraqi citizens, according to a coalition military statement. Four of the wounded were reported in stable condition, while the fifth person's condition was more serious, the statement said.

Insurgents also attacked a strategic infrastructure target.

A pipeline that feeds oil from Iraq's southern fields to refineries in the central and northern parts of the country was sabotaged, a Ministry of Oil spokesman told CNN on Monday.

An improvised explosive device went off Sunday beneath a secondary pipeline running parallel to the primary one, the spokesman said. A fire was being allowed to burn itself out Monday on a stretch between Karbala and Mussayib, south of Baghdad.

Lawyer: Saddam can't get fair trial

Ziad Khassawneh, a Jordanian lawyer for Saddam Hussein, said Sunday that the former dictator cannot get a fair trial because the courts and the laws are illegitimate.

He said on CNN's "Late Edition" that the defense team has yet to be allowed to see its client despite "all the requests made to all the entities and the free people of the world."

"Everything is done in secrecy. The occupation, the tribunal, interim government, everything is a violation of the forms of all the laws of international, legitimate laws," Khassawneh said.

Khassawneh argued that Saddam is the legitimate president of Iraq, the interim government was illegally installed by an occupying force and the court that will try him was formed by "illegitimate means."

Allawi told ABC that his government would insist on a fair trial for Saddam, "unlike what he did to his victims in Iraq."

"What has happened here is a great sign of a civilized approach to criminal suspects who have massive records of mass killings, massive graves, and using of weapons of mass destruction against the Iraqi people," he said.

Legal custody of Saddam was transferred from American authority to the Iraqis last week, though he remains in the physical custody of the U.S. military.

The judge at Saddam's first court appearance Thursday ended the hearing by saying the former dictator would be allowed to meet with his attorneys. No time, however, has been set for such a meeting. -- CNN News

Click Here To Have Your Say On This Story

Brudirect.com News