AMMAN, 20 December 2004 — Deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, in remarks during his first meeting with a lawyer since his capture a year ago, has urged Iraqis to “be cautious” of the general elections set for Jan. 30, the Amman-based defense team revealed yesterday.
“The Iraqis should be cautious over this (election) issue,” Saddam told the Iraqi lawyer Khalid Dulaimi, who met with the deposed Iraqi leader for four and half hours on Thursday, the legal team’s official spokesman Ziad Khasawneh told a press conference in Amman.
“The president is detained in a completely isolated 3x5-meter room and does not know what is going on around him. Before Thursday he did not meet anyone except his American guards and representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross,” Khasawneh quoted Dulaimi as saying.
“The president asked about the Iraqi people ... and stressed the need for their unity,” Khasawneh said.
“He also insisted that Iraq’s religious leaders, of all factions, have a role and must bear the historical responsibility for what is happening to Iraq,” he said.
Saddam praised France and Germany for their attitude and commended Spain for pulling its troops out of Iraq.
Dulaimi did not show up at the press conference “because he was obliged to leave for Iraq”, Khasawneh said alluding to security concerns for his life.
“The defense panel holds the US troops and the Iraqi government completely responsible for Dulaimi’s safety,” Khasawneh said.
The deposed Iraqi leader also expressed pride over the ongoing resistance against the US-led multinational force in Iraq. “I guessed by intuition that the warplanes which used to fly over my cell were heading to Fallujah,” Saddam was quoted as telling Dulaimi.
“The interview also cast doubt on the authenticity of the American version of the president’s capture on Dec. 13 last year,” Khasawneh said.
He said Saddam was actually arrested at a house in his hometown Tikrit. “They only wanted to distort his image,” he added.
US military commanders have maintained that Saddam was captured at a hideout near Tikrit and distributed pictures that showed him in a humiliating condition.
Saddam expressed dissatisfaction with the performance of the ICRC, which so far visited him four times.
“The president regretted the ICRC’s failure to carry out its humanitarian duties under international law, said the visits so far proved without avail and made it clear that he does not want further meetings with them if such behavior persisted,” Khasawneh said.
He pointed out that it was during the meeting with Dulaimi that the deposed leader knew for the first time of the legal team which took up his defense.
“Dulaimi obtained his signature for the authorization which now replaces one obtained from his family,” he said.
He also revealed that a number of prominent non-Arab lawyers, including former US Justice Minister Ramsay Clark, would shortly join the defense team. More than 1,500 Arab and non-Arab lawyers have volunteered to defend Saddam, but the panel currently includes about 30 prominent legal experts, Khasawneh said.
Saddam appeared in public for the first time on July 1 before a special Iraqi tribunal, but refused to answer questions from magistrates in the absence of legal counsel.
