1.
S.V.PAN THE ACCUSED AHMED MUKHTAR BABAN ENTERING COURT AND BOWS TO JUDGES, PAN TO JUDGES.


2.
S.C.U. THE ACCUSED SITTING AND RECEIVING MEDICAL ATTENTION.


3.
S.C.U. THE ACCUSER.. COL.M.M.AMEEN READING CHARGE TO COURT.


4.
S.C.U. JUDGES LISTENING.


5.
G.V. DITTO.


6.
S.V. THE ACCUSE SEATED.


7.
C.U. DITTO.


8.
L.V. THE PUBLIC.


9.
L.V. BALCONY..DITTO.


10.
S.V. COURT RISING AS WITNESS..MR.MUZAHIM AL-AMEEN AL-PACHACHI EX IRAQ PRIME MINISTER, ENTERS WITNESS STAND.


11.
C.U. THE ABOVE ADDRESSING THE COURT.


12.
L.V. DITTO.


13.
C.U. JUDGES LISTENING.


14.
L.V. PUBLIC.


15.
L.V. PRESSMEN AND T.V.CAMERA.


16.
C.U. WITNESS..MR.A.MARA'AY..CHIEF OF STAFF OF THE IRAQI ARMY INFORMATION.


17.
T.G.V. COURT IN SESSION.




Initials JRG A.W./P.B.



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: A former Iraqi Prime Minister, greying and sick Ahmed Mukhtar Baban was the latest chief defendant October 13 at the Bagdad purge trial at which over 100 former high officials and supporters of the old Feisal II Monarchy were appearing on treason charges.

Baban asked for permission to sit through the proceedings, then heard the prosecutor demand the death sentence. One of the charges against him was that he plotted to undermine the independence of neighbouring Syria 1956 and install young Feisal's uncle, Crown Prince Abdul Illah, on the throne.

At an earlier hearing the prosecutor also demanded the head of another former Prime Minister, Fadhil Jamali, better known as his country's delegate at the U.N.

The hearings were given wide coverage on the state television service and in the Press. Public packed the benches at the hearing being held in the parliament building.

Last week, October 9, the International commission of Jurists at the Hague announced it had asked the new Republican regime of Prime Minister, Brigadier Karim Kassem, to allow it to send a legally qualified observer to the trials.

The Commission reported receiving disturbing reports on the alleged retroactive character of the charges and the restrictions on the rights of the defence.

In a statement, it said, it appeared the defendants were being prosecuted, among other things for the part they played in determining the policies of the previous regime. If substantiated, the Commission held that they would constitutes serious breaches of a number of basic principles of law.

The Anglo-Saxon Press reporting the proceedings increased fears about the conduct of the trials, called it "vengeance",with short shrift for the defendants against whom was levelled a great deal of hearsay evidence.