Saddam, lawyers will boycott rest of trial

AP on Yahoo ^ | 7/10/06 | Bushra Juhi - ap

[NormsRevenge]

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Saddam Hussein and his lawyers announced they would boycott his trial even as its final phase began Monday, saying the court was unfair and demanding better security after the slaying of a senior member of the defense team.

The move means the trial could end with the same turbulence that has shaken it throughout its nine months of proceedings. It raises the likelihood that the former Iraqi leader will not be on hand to deliver his closing arguments to the court later this week, before the judges adjourn to consider their verdicts.

The verdicts are expected in mid-August, and Saddam and some of his seven former regime officials could face execution by hanging if convicted for crimes against humanity over a 1980s crackdown against Shiites.

Lawyers for Saddam and three of his top co-defendants said they would not attend the trial unless a list of demands were met — chief among them, better security after one of Saddam's lawyers, Khamis al-Obeidi, was kidnapped from his Baghdad home on June 21 and shot to death. The defense team has blamed the slaying on Shiite militiamen.

Saddam said in a letter to the chief judge that he would boycott because the court "lacks the lawful proceedings that are well established in international and Iraqi law.

"There's a deliberate attempt to convict us as a result of a malicious American desire, aided by disgusting collaborators in Iraq," Saddam wrote, referring to the Iraqi government.

He signed the letter as "president and commander in chief of the holy fighting armed forces" and mocked the current government for coming to power "by American political or financial support."

The collaborators "think that if they convict us of what they call 'crimes against humanity,' they will keep us out of Iraqi affairs," he said in the letter, a copy of which was provided by his lawyers.

Saddam and his defense team have held brief boycotts in the past, and chief judge Raouf Abdel-Rahman appeared determined the shrug off the latest protest. He dismissed the defense demands, saying they were either not under the court's purview or were illegal.

Court spokesman Raid Juhi said court-appointed lawyers would deliver closing arguments for Saddam and other defendants if they or their lawyers do not attend.

"The reply to (the defense's) demands is to continue the court's proceedings. ... We call on the lawyers to abide by their professional ethics and maintain their client's rights," Juhi said.

The defendants are charged in a crackdown against Shiites in the town of Dujail launched after a 1982 assassination attempt against Saddam. They are accused of arresting hundreds of people, torturing women and children and killing 148 people sentenced to death for the attack.

On Monday, the court heard the final arguments for Ali Dayih and Mohammed Azawi, two local Baath Party officials accused of informing on Dujail residents who were later arrested and killed. The prosecution has asked for Azawi to be acquitted, acknowledging a lack of evidence against him, and for Dayih to get a lesser sentence.

Dayih stood and denied any role in the crackdown, saying he was "feeling pain and agony to see myself accused with crimes against humanity."

"Who am I to be tried today as a senior official of the former regime? I was a simple employee and low-ranking Baath Party member," he said, claiming that informant letters produced by the prosecution were forgeries.

In a new security measure after al-Obeidi's slaying, the faces of the lawyers of Dayih and Azawi were not shown in the television broadcast of the trial, and their voices were electronically altered — unlike previous sessions in which defense lawyers were shown.

But lawyers for Saddam and co-defendants Barzan Ibrahim, Taha Yassin Ramadan and Awad al-Bandar said they were boycotting the trial unless security is stepped up. They also demanded more time to prepare final statements, saying al-Obeidi's killing distracted them from their work.

Al-Obeidi was the third defense lawyer slain since the trial began in October, and the lawyers have complained throughout the trial that security fears have meant they cannot mount a proper defense.

"Everyone is afraid," defense lawyer Najib al-Nueimi told The Associated Press, speaking from Qatar. "We have all gotten threats. What do you expect us to do? Lawyers have closed down their offices and gone into hiding and taken their families to Jordan."

Abdel-Rahman expressed his regrets over al-Obeidi's death, saying the court "strongly condemns any attack against lawyers or against any of those working in this court."

Court officials have said they expect verdicts to be issued before a second trial of Saddam begins Aug. 21. In that trial, Saddam and six other former members of his regime face charges in the Anfal campaign in the 1980s that killed an estimated 100,000 Kurds and saw thousands of Kurdish villages razed.

____

Associated Press correspondents Lee Keath in Cairo, Egypt, and Jamal Halaby in Amman, Jordan, contributed to this report.

[NormsRevenge]

Former Baath Party official in the Dujail region, Mohammed Azawi Ali, foreground, gestures as co-defendant Ali Dayih Ali, looks on as he presents final arguments in his case during his trial held under tight security in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone, Monday July 10, 2006. Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and seven co-defendants, including Mohammed Azawi Ali, and Ali Dayih Ali are on trial for torture, illegal arrests and the killing of nearly 150 people from Dujail after a 1982 assassination attempt on Saddam in the town.(AP PHoto/David Furst, Pool)

[dirtboy]

Saddam, lawyers will boycott rest of trial

Fine by me, as long as he is not allowed to boycott his execution.

[mtbopfuyn]

Wimps.

[NormsRevenge]

Now ya see him,

The turbulent trial of Saddam Hussein on charges of crimes against humanity will enter its last phase on Monday as defence lawyers make their closing arguments without a key member of their team.(AFP/File)

---

now ya don't.

Mohammed Azawi, a local Baath party official in the Dujail area, gestures as he presents final arguments during his trial in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone July 10, 2006. Saddam Hussein's lawyers said on Monday they will boycott the toppled leader's trial until a sweeping series of demands are met, following the killing of a third member of the defence team last month. REUTERS/David Furst/Pool (IRAQ)

[rwgal]

I see this as no big deal. We all knew that in the end he would rightfully be found guilty and then hanged/gassed/shot...or all three (LOL). So him or his lawyers not being there only makes it less volatile in the court room....let's just git her done and have this clown meet the rest of the terrorist in hell, the sooner the better.

[Kewlhand`tek]

3rd post?

[jpl]

We all knew that in the end he would rightfully be found guilty and then hanged/gassed/shot...or all three (LOL).

My advice would be not to hold your breath waiting for Saddam's execution. He's most likely going to be hanging around for a good while longer.

[Tax-chick]

Great. Sentence him in absentia, and then turn him loose in Kurdistan.

[NonValueAdded]

How else could they play out a losing hand?

[Howlin]

Is he picking his teeth in that first photo????

[MikeA]

Whatever. Hopefully this will speed up getting the POS to the gallows.

[NormsRevenge]

playing with his beard or mustache , I don;t think he is allowed to have any objects he might use to injure someone. lol, not that a toothpick is a deadly weapon or he is a MacGyver by any stretch of the imagination.

[1Old Pro]

Saddam deserves a swift trial and execution. The sooner he's dead and gone the better.

[marron]

Saddam Hussein and his lawyers announced they would boycott his trial

This is fine. A war-trial is not a normal trial, it doesn't have the same purpose. It isn't intended to search for some unknown truth, its purpose is to document the necessary execution of those members of the prior regime who must not be allowed to go free.

Saddam is a danger even in prison, which means he must be hanged. The purpose of a trial is merely to ascertain that its him, and not one of his body-doubles, and to air for the record the reasons he must be hanged.

A defense team in Saddam's case is an irrelevancy.

[dukakis kerry the dream team]

Why is this guy...


wearing one of these?

[California Patriot]

There should never have been a trial. Let's get on with the hanging.

[SMM48]

Keith Olberman, right?