CLEVELAND: Michael Scharf, professor of law and director of the Frederick K. Cox International Law Center at Case Western Reserve University, will provide an insider’s perspective about the Saddam Hussein trial and its consequences at noon on Friday, January 12, 2007, at The City Club of Cleveland.
 

Saddam Hussein's year-long trial has been called “one of the messiest in legal history,” and his execution last week was, by all accounts, a total fiasco. But was the trial fair? And what affect will the trial and execution likely have on the prospects for peace in Iraq? Scharf, who trained the judges that presided over the Saddam Trial, has published a new book titled Saddam on Trial: Understanding and Debating the Iraqi High Tribunal.

In 2004-05, Scharf served as a member of the elite international team of experts that provided training to the judges and prosecutors of the Iraqi Special Tribunal. In 2006, he led the first training session for the prosecutors and judges of the newly established U.N. Cambodia Genocide Tribunal. In February 2005, Scharf and the Public International Law and Policy Group, which he co-founded, were nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by six governments and the prosecutor of an International Criminal Tribunal for the work they have done to help in the prosecution of major war criminals, such as Slobodan Milosevic, Charles Taylor, and Saddam Hussein

During the first Bush and Clinton Administrations, Scharf served in the Office of the Legal Adviser of the U.S. Department of State as attorney-adviser for Law Enforcement and Intelligence, attorney-adviser for United Nations Affairs, and delegate to the U.N. Human Rights Commission.

Scharf is the author of 10 books, including Balkan Justice, nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in 1998, and the award-winning books The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and Peace with Justice.

Tickets for this City Club Friday Forum are $18 for members and $30 for non-members. Lunch is included. Reservations are required at least 24 hours in advance of the event. They can be purchased by calling The City Club at 216.621.0082 or visiting the website at www.cityclub.org.