WASHINGTON -- Although Iraqi judges handed down the death sentence against Saddam Hussein, hundreds of US lawyers, advisers, and investigators played a crucial role in the process of trying and convicting the ousted Iraqi leader.
For three years, officials from the Department of Justice and the State Department pored over millions of Iraqi documents and hundreds of graves from mass killings during Hussein's 24-year rule in search of key evidence for his trials. US advisers helped draft the rules of the court. Later, after an elected Iraqi government came to power, US officials continued to play a key role in the daily administration of the court.
In all, the US government spent more than $128 million building the courthouse, exhuming mass graves, gathering evidence, and training Iraqi judges -- dwarfing the $9 million spent by Iraq.
For many critics in Iraq and beyond, Hussein's trial has been tainted by the perception -- especially common in the Arab world -- that the US military victors in Iraq orchestrated the judg ment. Indeed, US officials say they wanted to play a lesser role, but say few other governments were willing to assist Iraq in bringing Hussein to justice.
"It is very clear that if you look at sentiment in the Arab regional world, the American role in establishing the tribunal and its link to the invasion of Iraq has greatly lessened the tribunal's legitimacy," said Miranda Sissons , a senior associate at the International Center for Transitional Justice, a New York-based organization that researches and supports war crimes and genocide prosecutions worldwide, who observed Hussein's trial.