Iraqi parliament seeks Saddam court shake-up to expedite trial News
Iraqi parliament seeks Saddam court shake-up to expedite trial

[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.

THIS DAY @ LAW

No lynchings reported in US for first time

On December 30, 1952, the Tuskegee Institute reported that 1952 was the first year of no lynchings of African Americans in the United States in the 71 years it had kept records. Learn more about lynching and listen to Billie Holiday's jazz recording of the 1938 protest song Strange Fruit.

USSR established

On December 30, 1922, representatives of Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and the Transcaucus approved the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR and the Declaration of the Creation of the USSR, creating the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). During World War II, the USSR would also annex Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Moldova. Learn more about the history of the USSR from the BBC.