A look inside the Iraqi tribunal

NPR ran an interesting story a couple days ago dealing with the assassination of Judge Barawiz Mahmoud and his son, a lawyer, in Baghdad. Both men were working on gathering evidence in order to prosecute Saddam Hussein and his henchmen for crimes against humanity, something that has never been done before in Iraq.

Authorities still don't know the motive for the killing, although NPR's Baghdad correspondent speculates it could have been a number of reasons: the judge was Kurdish, he was simply a judge, or because he was working on Saddam's trial. In any case, the reporter gave some pretty interesting details on the entire process. The fact that these judges had to be specifically trained to carry out this trial, and that the death penalty is allowed to play a part in the sentencing. Also, the tribunal against Saddam and his aides will not be carried out by jury, only judges. I suggest that you listen to this story in order to get a better feel for the entire process.