Saddam lawyers demand protection during trial

updated 5:25 p.m. ET Nov. 9, 2005

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The defense team in Saddam Hussein’s trial said Wednesday it will not show up for the next session Nov. 28 unless the court accepts its demands for “neutral international intervention” to guarantee security.

The declaration followed the assassination Tuesday of a second defense lawyer in the trial, already threatened by the insurgency and questions about legal standards. Adel al-Zubeidi, lawyer for former Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan, was killed by gunmen in Baghdad and another attorney was wounded.

Khalil al-Dulaimi, head of the defense team, told reporters the U.S.-led coalition and the Iraqi government bear some responsibility for the assassinations because they have been unable to maintain order in a country wracked by insurgency — much of it fomented by Saddam’s supporters.

Al-Dulaimi released a statement declaring that the defense considers the Nov. 28 trial date “null and void” because of the “very dangerous circumstances that prevent the presence” of the attorneys “unless there is a direct, neutral international intervention that guarantees” security.

Boycott expected
Abdel-Haq Alani, a key coordinator on the defense team, was asked by The Associated Press whether he expected the Saddam lawyers to appear in court Nov. 28. Alani replied: “I believe not.”

He told the AP by telephone from London that the Americans were obliged to protect defense lawyers as “the occupying power.” The United States maintains that status ended when the coalition returned sovereignty to the Iraqis on June 28, 2004.

Saddam and seven co-defendants went on trial Oct. 19 in the deaths of 148 Shiite Muslims who were executed after an 1982 attempt on the former president’s life in Dujail, a Shiite town north of Baghdad. The defendants could receive the death penalty if convicted.

Also Wednesday, the U.S. command announced that a U.S. Marine died of injuries suffered when a roadside bomb exploded near his vehicle two days earlier in western Iraq. The death brings to 2,055 the number of U.S. military service members who have died since the start of the war in 2003, according to an AP count.

Elaborate security measures have been taken to protect judges, prosecutors and witnesses in the Saddam trial, including keeping their names secret as long as possible. Concern for the safety of the defense team rose when lawyer Saadoun al-Janabi was abducted by masked gunmen the day after the opening session. His body was found later with bullets in his head.

After al-Janabi’s killing, the rest of the defense team announced they were suspending dealings with the special court trying their clients until their security was guaranteed. The latest statement appeared to harden that position.

Defense turned down offers to move trial
However, the government says the defense twice turned down offers to move into the heavily guarded Green Zone, where the courtroom is located, for the duration of the trial. President Jalal Talabani renewed the offer Wednesday.

In an interview with Time magazine the day before his death, al-Zubeidi, a Shiite, said he was working on the defense team because of his allegiance to the law and not to the Sunni-dominated former regime.

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