AMMAN, 28 November 2005 — Lawyers for Saddam Hussein plan to seek an adjournment when the trial of the ousted Iraqi dictator resumes today, a member of the Jordan-based defense team said yesterday.
Saddam and seven of his former henchmen face charges of crimes against humanity over a 1982 massacre of Shiite villages following an attempt on the former leader’s life.
The lawyer, Ziad Najdawi, said that among those defending Saddam would be former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark.
“Ramsey Clark left Amman for Baghdad this morning, with former Qatari Justice Minister Najib Al-Nuaimi and Jordanian defense team member Issam Ghazzawi. They plan to defend President Saddam and seek an adjournment,” Najdawi said.
The trial resumes in a high-security courtroom in Baghdad after a five-week recess.
Saddam and his co-defendants, who face the death penalty if convicted, all pleaded guilty at the dramatic opening of their trial on Oct. 19.
“Our plan is to go to court in Baghdad on Monday morning representing the defense counsel as defense support. A fair trial in this case is absolutely imperative for historical truth to justice obviously,” Clark said.
Both Clark and Nuaimi backed suggestions by some human rights groups that a fair trial was impossible before a US-backed court in Iraq and the case should be moved abroad and tried before an international tribunal.
Saddam’s defense team had sought to have foreign lawyers support their side. Washington has been under international pressure to ensure the former leader’s legal rights are upheld.
“It is absolutely essential that the court is legal in its constitution. A court cannot be a court unless it is absolutely independent of all external pressures and forces,” Clark said.
The defense team had criticized Washington and the US-backed Iraqi authorities for limiting access to the jailed former ruler, saying justice could not be done without full defense access.
“Our presence in the trial does not mean recognition of the role of the court. It is only to clarify to the court that it’s legal course is not right and that is not a court based on proper foundations...We want them to dissolve themselves and have a court outside Iraq,” Nuaimi said.
Clark echoed Nuaimi’s view that a court set up by a victorious power occupying a country had no legal basis.
“This is unprecedented, there is an illegal invasion of a country, an occupied forced created a court and then established a government, it spends tens of millions of hundreds of millions of dollars electing a government then the government ratified or rubberstamps as we say the court that the United States created and the procedures are unique,” he said.
Lawyers for Saddam and seven co-defendants had threatened to boycott today’s session unless their security was guaranteed.
Two defense lawyers were killed within days of the trial opening on Oct. 19.
The defense team has since insisted on US protection, rather than security provided by the Iraqi government.
“It is impossible for them to proceed with the trial with any assurances they will complete it alive. So our demand would be for adequate security in place to protect them before, during, and after the trial and protect their families,” Clark said.
“There may be hundreds of witnesses called, but how do you ask a witness to come if there is a pattern of assassinations or executions of witnesses?”
