Posted on 06/21/2006 9:47:45 AM PDT by MikeA
BAGHDAD, Iraq - One of Saddam Hussein’s main lawyers was shot to death Wednesday after he was abducted from his Baghdad home by men wearing police uniforms, the third killing of a member of the former leader’s defense team since the trial started some eight months ago.
Khamis al-Obeidi, an Iraqi who represented Saddam and his half brother Barzan Ibrahim in their trial, was abducted from his house Wednesday morning, said Saddam’s top lawyer, Khalil al-Dulaimi. His body was found on a street near the Shiite slum of Sadr City, police Lt. Thaer Mahmoud said.
Chief prosecutor Jaafar al-Moussawi confirmed that al-Obeidi had been killed, although he did not provide any details.
Al-Obeidi, who was in his 50s and had six children, was the third member of Saddam’s defense team to be killed since the former leader’s trial began on Oct. 19.
A dozen masked gunmen abducted defense lawyer Saadoun al-Janabi from his Baghdad office the day after the trial’s opening session. His body was found the next day with two bullets in his skull. Nearly three weeks later, defense lawyer Adel al-Zubeidi was assassinated in a brazen daylight ambush in Baghdad. A colleague who was wounded fled the country.
“The aim of this act is to terrify the lawyers and hinder the work of the defense team,” al-Dulaimi said.
Unlike al-Dulaimi, who shuttles between Amman, Jordan, and the Iraqi capital, al-Obeidi chose to continue living in Baghdad during the trial despite the capital’s tenuous security. He lived in the predominantly Sunni neighborhood of Azamiyah in northern Baghdad.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
I suppose the media will now spend more time hand wringing over this than they ever will over the murder of our 2 soldiers.
I doubt it since anytime Saddam wants to delay his trial, he has one of his lawyers shot. He's still up to his old tricks.
I got all excited thinking it might have been Ramsey Clark...
Well that's too bad. I think I'll clip my nails now.
I'm going to reprimer my jeep and get it ready for a paint job.
(...I had the same thought.)
You think maybe we could import some of these guys for defense lawyers here?
somehow I have a nagging feeling that Amnesty Internationl, the ACLU, or Jimmy Carter will be stepping up to announce the social injustice of Saddam not receiving a fair trial...
And then the Iraqis should hang Saddam in a public square.
Exactly.
That's my assumption also.
I agree; I think it's quite likely that Saddam ordered the death of his own lawyer so as to discredit/prolong the trial. The guy is that evil.
I'd like a Che like T-shirt with Ramsey laid out.
It was a mistake to take Saddam alive. We should have dropped a couple of hand grenades in his spider hole.
Me TOO!!!!!
Simple solution. If they're worried about Sadam getting a fair trial, let one of them volunteer to represent him. I won't be holding my breath waiting for one of these stalwarts to come forward...
Shakespeare's advice, writ large
Ditto to bad it wasnt that TRAITOR Ramsey Clark
Two things:
1. Whoever shot the lawyer did the world a service. More lawyers should be shot.
2. Why does Saddam even HAVE a lawyer? Would we have given Hitler a lawyer? Castro? Stalin? Pol Pot? On a related note; why the hell did we ever pull him out of that hole alive?
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