![Iraqi parliament seeks Saddam court shake-up to expedite trial](https://www.jurist.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/jurist-white-text.png)
[JURIST] Iraq's parliament will debate a "comprehensive" bill later this month that would allow it to reorganize the Iraqi Special Tribunal (IST) [JURIST news archive] charged with trying Saddam Hussein and move his trial up, preferably to before the scheduled October referendum on a new Iraqi constitution. The first reading of the bill is scheduled for July 20. The legislation grew out of complaints that the Tribunal is being slowed by American interference. Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari [BBC profile] has said he wants the trial to be "over and done with" [JURIST report], and Iraq's justice minister has previously accused the US of stalling the trial because it has "secrets" to hide [JURIST report]. Iraqi legislators also say that implementing the current Tribunal's governing statute [text], they want to clear the Tribunal of Baathists, said to include Raed Juhi, the judge who has presided at two interrogations of Saddam Hussein. AFP has more.