中东—萨达姆·侯赛因面临对其谋杀罪的审判-英语课

时间：2019-01-31 作者：英语课 分类：VOA2005（下）--国政军事聚焦

英语课

Saddam Hussein Faces Mass Murder Trial

萨达姆·侯赛因面临对其谋杀罪的审判

The trial of Saddam Hussein is being seen by many Iraqis as the long overdue 1 hand of justice after decades of suffering. And some see the event as a possible warning to other authoritarian 2 figures in the region.

But many analysts 3 fear that the process will only deepen the divisions in Iraqi society and fuel the violence that has killed thousands of people in recent years.

They worry that the trial will especially alienate 4 Sunni Arabs, who dominated government under Saddam, but have since been relegated 6 to a minor 7 role. Sunnis boycotted 8 legislative 9 elections nine months ago, which were won by the Shiite Arab majority and independence-minded Kurds.

The head of Amman's Jerusalem Center for Political Studies, Ureib Rantawai, says the trial, coming at this time, will only aggravate 10 the Iraqi crisis.

Ureib Rantawai: It will increase the anger. It will raise the instability in Iraq. It will help the extremists to use this trial in order to justify 11 what they are doing nowadays in Iraq.

Saddam Hussein and seven subordinates are to appear Wednesday under tight security before a special tribunal of five Iraqi judges. They are charged with ordering the mass murder of 140 villagers from Dujail, north of Baghdad, after a failed assassination 12 attempt 23 years ago. If convicted, they could face the death penalty.

But Saddam's lawyers say they will ask for a postponement 13 in order to better prepare their defense 14.

Legal experts say that the Dujail massacre 15 is one of the lesser 16 atrocities 17 committed by the Saddam regime. They say the former leader could also be tried for the gassing of five thousand Kurds in 1988, the deaths of thousands of Shiites following an uprising in 1991, and hundreds of thousands of deaths during the Iran-Iraq war. They say the Dujail incident is well documented and therefore can help establish a model for subsequent trials.

Analysts warn the trial could turn Saddam into a victim in the eyes of some people, especially Arab Sunnis. As a result, they say the proceedings 18 must be well run.

Ureib Rantawai: It should be a fair trial. It should be a just trial. It should be an open one. Transparency, I think, is a very, very important issue. Otherwise, it will be identified by part of the Iraqis as part of the conspiracy 19 led by the Americans on [against] their country.

But international human-rights organizations have voiced concerns, saying that some of the rules governing the trial do not meet international standards. They say the defense must not be restricted and guilt 20 must be proven beyond any reasonable doubt. Iraqi officials and their international advisors 21 say such measures are in place and the trial will be fair.