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Saddam's lawyers boycott trial
By Ammar Al-Alwani
11/09/05 -- --RAMADI, Iraq (Reuters)
- Lawyers for Saddam Hussein
and his aides severed all contact with the court trying the former
Iraqi president on Wednesday after the second murder of a member of
the defense team since the trial began last month.
The judge said the court was considering its response.
Attorneys representing Saddam and seven co-accused on charges of
crimes against humanity considered a second day of hearings set for
November 28 to be "canceled and illegitimate," lead counsel Khalil
al-Dulaimi told Reuters.
Interviewed in the Sunni Arab rebel stronghold of Ramadi, west of
Baghdad, he said he felt personally threatened and renewed demands
for the United Nations to intervene to stop the trial following
Tuesday's killing of lawyer Adil al-Zubeidi.
Judge Rizgar Amin, who presides over a panel of five trial judges,
told Reuters they had yet to decide how to respond to the problem:
"Now is the time to sit and talk and discuss this among ourselves so
we can reach a decision in the coming days."
It was for the government to protect the lawyers, he said.
"We're facing daily threats and these threats prevent us from going
to our offices and the court and from interviewing the witnesses,"
said Dulaimi after the defense team issued a statement blaming the
U.S. occupying forces and Iraq's Shi'ite- led government for failing
to provide security for them.
Dulaimi said: "We call on the international community, the U.N.
Security Council, the United States and all those involved to work
on scrapping the criminal court as illegitimate, and also to
pressure it to release President Saddam Hussein and his legitimate
leadership team.
"The defense committee has decided to consider the November 28 date
canceled and illegitimate," he added.
The defense statement said: "We put the responsibility entirely upon
the U.S. forces, since they are the occupying force, ... and upon
the Iraqi government which should play its part in providing
security and protecting people's lives."
SECRET BURIAL
Coming less than three weeks after the killing of another lawyer for
one of Saddam's co-accused, Tuesday's attack renewed international
concerns about whether the trial can be held in Iraq given the
sectarian violence still plaguing the country.
It was unclear what effect a defense boycott would have on the
tribunal, which has the power to appoint counsel. However it would
clearly dent efforts by the Iraqi and U.S. governments to show that
the trial is entirely fair.
Zubeidi, who was defending Saddam's half-brother Barzan al-Tikriti
and former vice president Taha Yassin Ramadan, was buried on
Wednesday, virtually in secret.
Police said close relatives interred him with a minimum of ceremony
in the Shi'ite holy city of Kerbala, south of Baghdad, in line with
Shi'ite custom.
Gunmen shot Zubeidi in his car in Baghdad; Thamer Hamoud al-Khuzaie,
a fellow member of the defense team is in hospital with bullet
wounds and head injuries sustained when the car crashed, a medical
source said.
RULE OF LAW
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the attacks undermined
efforts to uphold the rule of law: "It is vitally important that the
security of all involved with the tribunal should be equally assured
to ensure a trial free from intimidation and coercion," he said
through his spokeswoman.
The anger dividing Iraq pervades the proceedings, but ministers
refused to consider a move abroad after the murder of lawyer Saadoun
al-Janabi the day after the trial opened on October 19. Tribunal and
government officials made no comment.
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani urged the government to ensure the
safety of those involved in the trial.
The start of the trial was watched on television by millions of
Iraqis -- both Zubeidi and Janabi spoke heatedly -- but some of
Saddam's fellow Sunni Arabs called it "victors' justice"
orchestrated by the Shi'ite- and Kurdish-led government.
The government has denied involvement in the murder of Janabi, who
was kidnapped and killed the day after the trial opened by men who
witnesses said identified themselves as employees of the Interior
Ministry.
In the latest burst of violence, a suicide car bomb in the mixed
Shi'ite and Sunni Arab town of Baquba, north of Baghdad, killed
seven Iraqi policemen, army and medical sources said.
With five weeks until December 15 elections that Washington hopes
will steer Iraq further along the path to stability and democracy,
the Arab League stepped up efforts to organize a national
reconciliation conference in Cairo.
An Arab League delegation has been visiting Baghdad to persuade
politicians to attend the conference, which had originally been
planned for November 15. Billed as a way to heal deep sectarian
rifts in post-Saddam Iraq, the conference was put off while
organizers tried to lure more people to the table.
Senior Arab League official Ahmed ben Hilli said there would now be
a meeting in the Egyptian capital on November 19 to prepare the
ground for a main conference to be held some time later.
In western Iraq, where U.S. and Iraqi forces have been conducting an
offensive since Saturday to clear the small frontier town of Qusayba
of al Qaeda militants, the U.S. military declared the main phase of
the operation complete.
(Additional reporting by Faris al-Mehdawi in Baquba, Alastair
Macdonald, Paul Tait, Waleed Ibrahim, Aseel Kami, Lutfi Abu Oun and
Ahmed Rashid in Baghdad, Irwin Arieff at the United Nations)
Copyright © 2005 Reuters Limited.
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