Jurisdiction and Sentences in Iraqi High Criminal Court: From the Establishment of the Tribunal to the Execution of Saddam

The establishment of an special tribunal by enacting its statute, in order to try Saddam Hussein and his co-defendants, was the dream of all the victims of former Ba'ath Regime crimes that in December 10, 2003 came true. Studying the jurisdiction and sentences of this tribunal, named Iraqi High Criminal Court, which is the subject-matter of this article, shows that as a result of some limitations in the statute, the tribunal is not authorized to try all the attributed crimes. Furthermore, the statute does not prescribe the payment of the payoffs resulting from the war against Iran. Announcing the death sentence by the Iraqi High Criminal Court and its quick execution, settled all the discussions about the possibility of holding the death penalty by this court but it caused a number of ambiguities about the different aspects of the crimes attributed to Saddam as the most important defendant of the Court. Keywords: Jurisdiction, Sentence, Iraqi High Criminal Court, Saddam, Ba'ath Regime.     Value Added Tax (VAT) and Tax Fairness   Seyed Aziz Masoomi   Taxation has a life as long as the human civilization. Tax has been used as a tool for society development and it is now seen as a fee for residence in developed countries. Human civilization development has resulted in taxation division to various parts among which VAT is attached more importance for its fairness. To reveal the importance of VAT, it should be said that it is now used a tool for fairness in more than 12 countries, 4.000.000.000 persons (70% of the world population) now live in the countries which have VAT. VAT revenue for the government is annually $18 trillions. This paper dealt with VAT nature and then explains it as a toll for tax fairness.