When a judge prejudges
From John Laughland
Sir: Geoffrey Robertson pontificates on how only an international court can give Saddam Hussein a fair trial (‘Saddam must get real justice’, 3 December), but he of all people should know that international courts are as open to abuse as national ones. In March Mr Robertson was disqualified from hearing three cases in the Special Court in Sierra Leone, of which he used to be president, because in his book and in newspaper articles he had written that the rebel group which three defendants commanded had committed ‘grotesque crimes against humanity’ and that one of them was ‘the nation’s butcher’ — even before their trials had started. Three days after his humiliating disqualification, Robertson’s fellow judges removed him as president of the Court. At least Mr Robertson’s African colleagues remain faithful to the principle that a man is innocent until proved guilty; what a shame that this principle is nearly always disregarded by the numerous European lawyers who populate the international community’s other kangaroo tribunals, as it is by Mr Robertson himself.
John Laughland London W14
Class of 47
Sir: In her diary (19 November) Miriam Gross writes that one of Anthony Powell’s sons was at the Francis Holland School with me in 1943. That is inaccurate. Francis Holland School was relocated to Oxford during the war and didn’t re-open in Baker Street until 1946. I started there in 1947.
Joan Collins London SW1
From Joan Collins
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