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Defense Lawyer to Attempt Hussein Meeting
Saddam Hussein's Defense Team to Send One Lawyer to Iraq to Try to Meet With Deposed Leader
The Associated Press |
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AMMAN, Jordan July 3, 2004 — A team of lawyers that claims to represent Saddam Hussein is dispatching an envoy to Iraq to try to meet with the deposed Iraqi dictator, group members said Saturday. Iraqi authorities have not recognized the team of 20 Jordanian and foreign lawyers appointed by Saddam's wife, Sajida. The lawyers have said they fear their lives will be in danger if they come to Iraq. |
Ziad Najdawi, a member of the team, will present the Iraqis with the power of attorney signed by Sajida and try to meet Saddam, said Mohammed Rashdan, the head of the defense team.
"We are trying to move for the defense of Mr. President Saddam Hussein, despite our concern for the safety of our colleague," Rashdan told The Associated Press. "The trial began and the president has been denied his legal right to a lawyer, which is in violation of international law and the due process."
The defense lawyers have claimed that Iraqi authorities have threatened them if they traveled to Iraq.
On Thursday, Issam Ghazawi, one of the lawyers, said he had received a telephone call from Iraqi Justice Minister Malek Dohan al-Hassan, who allegedly threatened that if the lawyers made it to Baghdad, they "will not only be killed, but cut into pieces."
There was no immediate comment from al-Hassan or the Iraqi Embassy in Jordan.
Members of the team say they have also received anonymous death threats.
On Friday, the defense team announced that the daughter of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi will join Saddam's defense team, which already includes lawyers from Jordan, Lebanon, Tunisia and Western countries such as the United States, Britain, France and Belgium, to fight the war crimes charges the former Iraqi leader is facing.
Aicha Moammar Gadhafi, a law professor aged in her late 20s, will form a Libyan experts team to help in the defense, al-Khasawneh told the AP.
Saddam and 11 other defendants, all former members of the ousted Iraqi regime, faced court in Baghdad for the first time Thursday on war crimes and genocide charges. Defense lawyers were not present for the brief arraignment.
| In this photo made available to the AP, altered at the source, cleared by the US military, and released Saturday July 3, 2004, Saddam Hussein is led into a courtroom in chains Thursday, July 1, 2004 at Camp Victory, a former Saddam palace on the outskirts of Baghdad. (AP Photo/Karen Ballard/Pool) |
