Cairo Mock Trial of U.S. President Bush, British PM Blair, and Israeli PM Sharon

Following are excerpts from a mock trial of U.S. President Bush, British PM Blair, and Israeli PM Sharon, staged by the Union of Arab Lawyers and aired on Al-Jazeera TV on February 2-5, 2006.

Head of Tribunal, former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Muhammad: This is not a mock trial. This is a trial in absentia. This is not because the defendants cannot be present in this court.

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As we all know, the powerful countries did not submit to the International Court of Justice. In fact, the most powerful country even refuses to recognize the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice. This simply means that crimes perpetrated by these powerful countries and their leaders can never be brought to justice for trial and judgment.

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Deputy Secretary-General of the Union of Arab Lawyers, Egyptian MP Abd Al-'Azim Al-Maghrabi: The bureau of the Union of Arab Lawyers has decided to convene this popular international trial. Why a popular trial? In order to reflect the helplessness and feebleness of the official Arab regimes, just like the official world order.

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I believe that it is our duty to remember the millions of dead, throughout the world, who sacrificed their lives in defense of truth, justice, and peace, and especially the martyrs of the Arab and Islamic nation in Palestine, Iraq, and the rest of the Arab [world]. I ask you to stand for a moment of silence in their memory, and in protest against the Zionist Western power, operating against Islam and the Muslims.

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Secretary-General, Union of Arab Lawyers, Ibrahim Al-Simlali: Humanity is in a transitional phase, in which chaos reigns in the world order, the U.S. is trying to control the world, using the law of power instead of the power of the law. The U.S. also tries to impose its will on the international legitimacy [i.e. the U.N.]. This policy - which primarily targets Arabs and Muslims - and the negation of our identity by implementing the so-called Greater Middle East plan, which is spearheaded by the Zionist entity, is sum up, to a great extent, the philosophy of the administration of philosophy of George Bush Jr. This philosophy is based on the belief in superiority over the rest of mankind, on America's right to subjugate humanity, and to plunder its natural resources, and is based on America's opportunity to sit on [the throne] of the world, as an absolute dictator that has the right to annihilate whoever strives for freedom and dignity, and refuses to be a slave.

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The [defendants] symbolize the order of international terrorism, and have come to embody this terrorism, and the imminent perils facing humanity in its entirety. In addition, they represent all those who planned, perpetrated, or participated in the heinous crimes against Palestine, Iraq, and in Guantanamo. Therefore, their popular trial is not only a trial of the defendants in person, but is also a trial of all the others. It is a snowball being rolled from the highest mountain.

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Member of the prosecution team, Hassan Ahmad 'Omar: These charges are made against: First George W. Bush. Second, Tony Blair. Third, Ariel Sharon. The first and second defendants, between 2001 and 2006, and the third defendant, between 1982 and 2006, committed the following crimes – the first and second defendants in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Guantanamo, and the third defendant in Palestine, Lebanon, and Iraq. The first defendant, George W. Bush, as U.S. president and of its armed forces, the second defendant, as Britain's PM and commander-in-chief of its armed forces, and the third defendant, as Israel's prime minister and the commander-in-chief of its armed forces, committed the following crimes: The first and second defendants ordered their soldiers to occupy the state of Iraq, to destroy its constitutional regime, to topple its legal government, to threaten its regional [territorial] integrity - thus violating the resolutions of the international legitimacy, and the U.N. Charter. They have turned the members of their armed forces into mercenaries. In addition, they have recruited, trained, and financed mercenaries, using them to help their mercenary soldiers in the above-mentioned [crimes].

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Secondly, while in office, they ordered their soldiers to abduct, torture, and put on trial the president of Iraq and other officials, in violation of the agreement preventing crimes against people who enjoy international immunity, including diplomats.

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While in office, they ordered their soldiers to allow the Israeli Mossad to operate in Iraq under the name of Abu Mus'ab Al-Zarqawi, killing, and assassinating Iraqi clerics of both sects.

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Member of the prosecution team, American lawyer Stanley Cohen: Ariel Sharon did something that George Bush and Tony Blair have never done. He picked up a gun, and he murdered and killed with his own hands. Now, their murder, their genocide, has been much cleaner. Later in life, Ariel Sharon put his gun down for a pencil – a pencil which wrote orders, which killed people, which burned villages, and which destroyed homes. The issue is not whether Bush, Sharon, and Blair have pulled the trigger or burned the village. We know from Nuremberg that the issue is whether they have made the policy and sent the order. On these accounts, we all say guilty, guilty, and guilty.

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The United States of America, that has provided 178 billion dollars to Israel, that has provided helicopters and gunships and tanks, and assassinations squads and poisons cannot, must not, and will never be a neutral arbiter in Palestine. It is like asking Hitler to settle the dispute of World War II. In that light, the history of Ariel Sharon... I've noticed today on television, where we've heard much commentary on how the history of Ariel Sharon parallels the history of Israel. That is not something to celebrate. It is something to mourn. The history of Israel has been wrapped and embraced with one of the longest and most public histories of genocide, mass murder and, yes, Holocaust that the world has seen. When does murder, your honors, become mass murder? When does mass muder become genocide? How many people must die before it becomes a Holocaust? They are all illegal, they are all ugly, they are all present in this region, particularly at the hands of Mr. Sharon and Mr. Bush.

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We stand here today speaking on behalf of six million Palestinians, who cannot speak for themselves today because they cannot travel, because they are stateless, because they are powerless.

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When this trial is over, the people of Palestine will get, through this tribunal, what they have not gotten from the rest of the world – a verdict of guilty against Sharon, against Zionism, against the death and destruction – and, inshallah, a homeland again. Thank you.