AMMAN, 30 December 2004 — Former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark announced Tuesday he had joined the legal team seeking to defend deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein before a special Iraqi court. But he dubbed the tribunal a “US creation” that lacks the international standards of independence and impartiality.
Speaking at a press conference, Clark — who was attorney general under President Lyndon Johnson from 1967 to 1969 - said he was giving priority to having a meeting with the former Iraqi leader. He said his decision to join Saddam’s defense panel stemmed from the “inhuman pictures” released upon his capture a year ago, his subsequent detention in “complete isolation”, depriving him of his right to a fair trial before “an impartial and independent court”.
“Before a team member managed to meet him two weeks ago, President Saddam Hussein did not see anybody except his captors and Red Cross men,” he said.
“The Iraqi court has been created by the Iraq Governing Council, which is more or less a creation of the occupying power. The court is a creation of the United States and not impartial,” he added.
Clark is the latest prominent legal expert to join Saddam’s defense team, which already comprises some 30 senior lawyers from Arab and non-Arab countries including former French Foreign Minister Roland Dumas and Aishah, daughter of the Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi. Clark pointed out that over the past year since Saddam’s capture he had approached US President George W. Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld “complaining of the inhuman treatment and violations of the Geneva conventions” the former Iraqi president was exposed to.
He said he also appealed to them to allow him visit Saddam at his detention place, but his request was turned down. “Nevertheless I will keep trying,” Clark responded to a reporter’s question if he still had plans to visit Iraq and meet the deposed Iraqi leader.
“The problem does not lie in visiting Iraq, but rather in getting a permission to meet the president,” he said.
“It is a clear priority to establish a system for communication with President Saddam Hussein,” he added. For the first time since his detention last December, Saddam was allowed to meet an Iraqi lawyer, Khalil Dulaimi, who is member of the Amman-based defense panel, on Dec. 16.
Also speaking at the press conference was the team’s official spokesman, Jordanian lawyer Ziad Khawawneh, who appealed for Clark’s good offices to enable the panel to open a bank deposit for collecting donations to finance Saddam’s litigation process.
“All local, Arab and non-Arab banks have so far refused to open an account for us, because they are afraid of being accused by the US administration of supporting the so-called terrorism,” Khawawneh said.
The former top US justice official, who arrived Tuesday in Jordan where the defense team is based, has become known as a left-wing lawyer and firm critic of US foreign policy since leaving office.
He visited Saddam Hussein in Baghdad in February 2003 just before the US-lead invasion and has also been involved with the defense of former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic, on trial for war crimes at a UN court in the Hague.
