Former Iraq PM Allawi says rights abuses as bad as under Saddam News
Former Iraq PM Allawi says rights abuses as bad as under Saddam

[JURIST] In a bid to appeal to Sunni voters, former Iraqi interim prime minister Iyad Allawi [JURIST news archive; Iraqi National accord party website, in Arabic], a Shiite, said in an interview with the UK's Observer newspaper Sunday that human rights abuses by Iraqi Shiites are as bad as they were under Saddam Hussein's regime. Sunnis claim that they have been unjustly targeted by Shiite-led security forces; Allawi accused Shiites in the government of managing death squads and secret torture chambers [JURIST report], allegations which multiplied after the recent discovery of an Interior Ministry facility holding more than 170 mostly Sunni prisoners [JURIST report]. Allawi is running on a secular platform in the December 15 elections [JURIST news archive] separate from Shiite religious parties. Iraqi government officials have downplayed abuse reports as lies created by enemies, but Allawi used them to invoke memories of Saddam's regime and remind voters of "the precise reasons [they] fought Saddam." AP has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

38 Santee Sioux hanged by US for rebellion

On December 26, 1862, 38 Santee Sioux men were hanged in a mass execution for their roles in a rebellion against US authorities in Minnesota which left hundreds dead and made refugees of some 40,000 white settlers. Government annuities promised under a treaty with the Sioux had failed to arrive on schedule and credit for purchases was not advanced in the meantime, threatening the tribe with starvation. The Santee Sioux Tribe's members were deported first to South Dakota and ultimately to Nebraska, where they remain today. Learn more about the 1862 Minnesota Sioux Rebellion.

Louis XVI put on trial during French Revolution

On December 26, 1792, Romain de Sèze, a defense attorney for deposed King Louis XVI, presented a defense of his client. The former King was on trial before a French Revolutionary court on thirty-three charges, including treason and other crimes against the state. He was convicted on January 15, 1793 executed by guillotine on the following January 21.