UPDATE: Initial reports proved wrong. Scroll down for critical corrections and information. The Judge was named Parwiz Muhammad Mahmoud al-Merani and he was killed along with his son, a prosecutor in for the tribunals, Aryan Mahmoud al-Merani. It has also been revealed that he was a leading member of the PKU, one of the two major Kurdish parties that fought against the Hussein regime.
------------- The major American media are reporting tonight that the Judge presiding over the Saddam Hussein trial in Iraq has been murdered. The judge is named as Barbweez Mahmood by NBC contradicting an earlier report by Fox News, WND and other media that had named the murdered judge as Raid Juhi al-Saadi . Fox News now confirms that the murdered judge was not Raid Juhi al-Saadi.

This is further evidence that a key component of the insurgency is in Saddam Hussein loyalists. As reported here earlier today, the Baathist party has been revised and is now working with jihadis to overthrow democratic rule in Iraq.

UPDATE: James Joyner points me to a Drudge story that corrects the earlier reports. The name of the judge is Barbweez Mahmood, but Mahmood is not the chief judge presiding over the Saddam Hussein trial. Instead, Mahmood is one of several judges charged with trying the former Baathis regim

At least five former Saddam Hussein regime members have already been charged with 'crimes against humanity'.

UPDATE II: Meanwhile Saddam's lawyers argue what the terrorists and the Western Left have been arguing all along:

Ziad al-Khasawneh, who heads Saddam's defense team, said the special court does not meet the requirements necessary to ensure a fair and safe trial, and said he believes there are no grounds to try Saddam in the first place.

"Whatever is built on illegality is illegal. Everything after the occupation — the temporary government, the elections — are illegitimate," he said at a news conference in Tokyo, where he is trying to raise support.

Update III: Captain Ed notes this from Molten Thought that Raid Juhi al-Saadi was the judge outed by Robert Fisk. Had he actually been the victim would Fisk have been culpable in his murder?? Looks like Goldstein and I are on the same page...yet again.

Allah, (in Jeff's comments) notes that even though Fisk's target Juhi al-Saadi wasn't the victim tonight, that he has been targetted in the past: "Fiskie must be dying to carve that notch on his bedpost."

Hey, close only counts in horse-shoes, hand-grenades, and Leftist-media inspired murders.

UPDATE IV: New York Times has this correction and information:

The judge, Parwiz Muhammad Mahmoud al-Merani, 59, was killed a day after the Iraqi Special Tribunal announced the first charges in the approaching trials of former senior officials in Mr. Hussein's government. His son, Aryan Mahmoud al-Merani, 26, who also worked at the tribunal as a lawyer, was killed with him, according to officials at Iraq's Interior Ministry.

Three men drove up and fired automatic weapons at the two men around 9 a.m. as they stood outside their family home in Adhamiya, a largely Sunni Arab neighborhood that has been a center of insurgent activity. Witnesses saw the attackers speeding away in a green Opel sedan without license plates, the officials said.

The 400 or so tribunal members, including about 100 judges and lawyers, have been provided with security guards, and their names have largely been kept secret to forestall assassination attempts. On Monday, as the first charges were announced, a Western legal expert involved in the trial process said that those working on the tribunal were exposed to dangers and that there had been "some incidents," but he declined to provide details.

Developing.....

Posted by: Rusty at 09:49 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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