the UN said that Saddam Hussein's trial would

the UN said that Saddam Hussein's trial would never satisfy international standards because of ongoing violence and flaws in Iraq's legal system. John Case, the UN's human rights chief in Iraq, said the murder of two defence lawyers, continued threats against judges, lawyers and witnesses and weaknesses in the Iraqi justice system had caused grave doubts about the trial's legitimacy.
"We're very anxious about the tribunal [trying Saddam]," he told Reuters in an interview. "The legitimacy of the tribunal needs to be examined. It has been seriously challenged in many quarters."
"There is already a paralysis in the legitimacy of the defence," said Case. "We believe that weakness in the system of administration of justice, in addition to the antecedents surrounding the establishment of this tribunal, will never be able to produce the kind of process that would be able to satisfy international standards." The UN had no official role in the trial but called for an independent probe into the deaths of the lawyers. Case's comments added to a growing chorus of international human rights and justice groups who argued that a fair trial was impossible under current conditions in Iraq. There had been calls for the trial to be delayed, moved to safer venues such as the Kurdistan region or abroad to the international criminal court in The Hague.