Amazon.com description: Product Description: On December 10, 2003, the US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council approved a statute establishing the Iraqi Special Tribunal for Crimes against Humanity. Following the Iraqi Transitional National Assembly election, the Iraqi Transitional Government was established in May 2005. In August of that year, the Iraqi Transitional National Assembly adopted a new Statute of the Iraqi Special Tribunal, which changed its name to Higher Criminal Court and brought its practices more into line with the rest of the Iraqi judicial system. The Iraqi Special Tribunal is designed to prosecute those accused of crimes against humanity, war crimes, and genocide in Iraq from July 1968, when Saddam Hussein's Bath Party seized power, to May 2003, when President Bush declared that major combat operations in Iraq were over. The court also has the authority to try several lesser crimes, including the squandering of public funds and attempts to manipulate the judiciary. Arrests of people suspected of committing gross human rights violations in Iraq have been carried out since the start of occupation and have continued following the transfer of power. This book illustrates the work of the Tribunal and presents the cases brought before the court.