[JURIST] Former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad [BBC profile], whose 22 years in office until 2003 made him one of Asia's longest-serving political leaders, Friday urged transparency and fairness in the trial of Saddam Hussein while announcing the launch of the so-called Emergency Committee for Iraq, co-chaired by himself, former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark [Wikipedia profile], former Algerian president Ahmed Ben Bella [Wikipedia profile] and former French foreign minister Roland Dumas [Wikipedia profile]. Mahathir warned "if it is accepted that the people who launch a war, (and) capture heads of governments can then put this head of government on trial, then other heads of governments will face this danger." Mahathis also spoke of the need to question President Bush's policy in Iraq, stating "otherwise he is going to get away with murder because he does anything he likes...on the basis that he is very strong therefore no one should even comment on what he does." AKI has more.