Saddam Film - BBC pay 600,000 Euros

The BBC have bankrolled The Team Production film company, led by producer Mette Heide and director Michael Christoffersen,with 600,000 Euros to film Saddam's trial.

'The idea was to describe historic events behind the scenes so you understand what processes are involved. That hasn't been tried before. Think if you could have done the same during the Nüremberg Trial after the war. Now you don't have to wait 30 years on historians but can document the events while they are still happening,"they told the daily newspaper Berlingske Tidende.

'The film looks at the case both from both sides, and you also sense the Americans' role. The frustrations, setbacks and victories when several of Saddam's defence lawyers were killed,' said Christoffersen.

Christoffersen made 'Genocide: The Judgement', in 1999, documented the trial of Jean-Paul Akayesu for his role in the Rwandan massacres at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in Arusha, for which, on October 2nd 1988 he received a life sentence.

The judgement can be accessed here ...this is an example of the hefty UN documentation ...

"On the morning of April 19, 1994, following the murder of Sylvere Karera, Jean Paul AKAYESU led a meeting in Gishyeshye sector at which he sanctioned the death of Sylvere Karera and urged the population to eliminate accomplices of the RPF, which was understood by those present to mean Tutsis. Over 100 people were present at the meeting. The killing of Tutsis in Taba began shortly after the meeting.

At the same meeting , Jean Paul AKAYESU named at least three prominent Tutsis -- Ephrem Karangwa, Juvénal Rukundakuvuga and Emmanuel Sempabwa -- who had to be killed because of their alleged relationships with the RPF. Later that day, Juvénal Rukundakuvuga was killed in Kanyinya. Within the next few days, Emmanuel Sempabwa was clubbed to death in front of the Taba bureau communal......

..........On or about April 19, 1994, Jean Paul AKAYESU took 8 detained men from the Taba bureau communal and ordered militia members to kill them. The militia killed them with clubs, machetes, small axes and sticks. The victims had fled from Runda commune and had been held by Jean Paul AKAYESU."

The Team company have also worked on the trial of Slobodan Milosevic at the ICC in Hague, which was closed on his death.... by natural causes. It isn't known if they consulted the beautiful and glamourous BBC Governor, Dame Pauline Neville Jones, spook and previously head of the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC) who with former Tory Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd worked with the (then) National Westminster Bank. The bank's investment arm worked with Serbian dictator Slobodan Milosevic to privatise the country's telecoms industry. Both had meetings with Milosevic in Belgrade in 1996 on Serbia 's foreign debt and the privatisation of state assets which considerably enriched him and his political allies.

More about Team production films here from the Danish Film Institute. Plus info from Danish TV2 here

If you really want the nastiest film of the hanging of Saddam with a detailed explanation of what is going on go to Robert Linsay blog here.