SPIEGEL:

Following the arrest of Saddam Hussein, the Americans and the Iraqi police under their control continue to face attacks. And the attacks on oil pipelines and the power grid have not abated. Who is responsible for these attacks?

Nur al-Din: They are primarily beneficiaries of the former regime, the recipients of generous gifts of money and property from Saddam, gifts that were completely unaccounted for. These people are now embittered, because they have lost their resources. But the car bombs and the suicide attacks are more likely to be the work of the Al Qaeda terror network. Nevertheless, I am certain that in the long term the resistance will subside and in the end will disappear completely.

SPIEGEL: You are the leading legal expert in the Governing Council and are responsible for the Iraqi war crimes tribunal. You and your colleagues insist on trying Saddam in Iraq. How will the court be assembled?

Nur al-Din: According to the law, which we adopted before Saddam was arrested, the judges must be Iraqis.

SPIEGEL: You reject an international court, such as the 1945/1946 Nazi war crimes tribunal in Nürnberg?

Nur al-Din: International judges could certainly be consulted. In fact, they could even be formal members of the full court, working alongside their Iraqi peers.

SPIEGEL: Is the Iraqi legal system even capable of conducting such a trial on its own?

Nur al-Din: All of Saddam's victims were Iraqis, and the issue is one of justice for our Iraqi people. This is why an Iraqi tribunal must judge Saddam and his regime. We are certainly capable of doing so. Now we intend to call him to account, and to do so in accordance with the rule of law.

SPIEGEL: When is the earliest you expect the trial to begin?

Nur al-Din: Probably in a few months, as soon as the new government is in place.

SPIEGEL: A few members of the Governing Council, as well as US President Bush, have called for the death penalty for Saddam. Is it possible that in July the transitional government will reinstate the death penalty, which was suspended by civilian administrator Paul Bremer?

Nur al-Din: It is possible. But it is also possible that the death penalty will be abolished once and for all.

SPIEGEL: The Pentagon has ordered that France, Germany and Russia - all of which were against the Iraq war - are not to be awarded major reconstruction projects. Do you agree with this decision?

Nur al-Din: The occupation will end when the transitional government comes into office on July 1. Then Iraq will be a sovereign state, and no country in the world will have the right to impose conditions on us. It will be up to us to decide whether to involve France, Germany and Russia. I hope that we will have a strong cooperative relationship with all three. Paris and Berlin have already promised to forgive a portion of our debts.

SPIEGEL: You yourself are of Kurdish origin. How much of the sovereignty that your people have acquired in recent years could be returned to Baghdad?

Nur al-Din: The Kurdish people have fought for these rights for 80 years, and they would find it difficult to give up their current level of self-determination. The future government will have to decide exactly how this issue is to be handled. However, we are in favor of federalism, so that we can retain as much of our right of self-determination as possible.

SPIEGEL: What do you believe Iraq will look like in ten years?

Nur al-Din: Iraq will be a democratic, constitutional state and, most of all, a very prosperous country. In addition to oil, we have water, fertile soil and an abundance of human resources. Iraq will blossom in the coming years.

SPIEGEL: Only two years ago, you were imprisoned under Saddam's orders. How did you feel when he was arrested?

Nur al-Din: I felt deeply satisfied that a man who has committed such crimes will now be brought to justice. His followers must have been stunned to see the greater usurper being paraded around as a meek lamb, a man who had been reduced to having his tangled hair and teeth inspected.