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Jailed Saddam Hussein meets lawyer for first time
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-12-17 01:07
BAGHDAD - Saddam Hussein saw a lawyer on Thursday for the first time since
his arrest a year ago, days after his attorneys protested over lack of access to
him or other detained former Iraqi officials, the defense team said.
"The
interview lasted for more than 4 hours. The president seems in good health, much
better compared to his first appearance before the court," the Amman-based legal
team said in a statement emailed to news agencies.
"The president appreciated his defense committee efforts."
A spokesman for the team said one of its 20 members had visited Saddam,
but declined to identify the individual.
Saddam, 67, has been behind bars since U.S. forces caught him hiding in a
hole in the ground near his home town of Tikrit on Dec. 13, 2003. He is due to
be tried for war crimes, as are 11 top aides, although no date has been set for
any trial.
Saddam's lawyers said earlier this week they did not recognize the Iraqi
interim government's efforts to try the ousted president or his deputies because
they had been denied access to counsel. Lawyers had also not able to see
documents on which to prepare their defenses.
Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said on Tuesday that war crimes trials of some
of Saddam's lieutenants would begin next week. The defense minister said
Saddam's cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as "Chemical Ali" for his alleged use
of poison gas, would appear first in a process set to start by mid-January.
Western diplomats said the proceedings were not the start of a war crimes
trial but preliminary investigative hearings.
Saddam himself is expected to be among the last to be tried. However, the
Iraqi Special Tribunal organizing the process said on Wednesday that those whose
trials were most imminent had been granted access to lawyers.
COUNTLESS MISSING
Twelve leaders of the toppled Baathist government, including Saddam, are
being guarded by U.S. troops at the military base of Camp Cropper near Baghdad,
awaiting trial by Iraqi judges.
They appeared briefly in court in July to be told of the charges against
them, including war crimes and crimes against humanity. Some briefly shunned
food this week as part of a short-lived protest against their detentions.
The Jordanian spokesman for Saddam's defense team, Ziyad Khasawneh, said
he did not know when his high-profile client would next appear in court.
Khasawneh, appointed by Saddam's wife Sajida, had threatened legal action
against the U.S. administration unless members of the team were allowed to see
their client.
Much of the evidence against those facing trial is expected to come from
283 mass graves discovered around Iraq in the 21 months since U.S.-led forces
overthrew the former government.
The latest, containing some 500 bodies, was discovered near the city of
Sulaimaniya, in the autonomous Kurdish region of northeastern Iraq where other
graves have also been found.
Saddam launched military offensives against the Kurds in the late 1980s
and forces under "Chemical Ali" used poison gas against the village of Halabja
in 1988, killing 5,000.
One of the reasons given by U.S. and Iraqi authorities for the delay in
bringing Saddam and his lieutenants to trial has been the difficulty of
gathering evidence from graves and sifting through the tons of documents left by
the Baathists.
Iraqi Human Rights Minister Bakhtiar Amin said on Wednesday it would take
more than 25 years to uncover the fate of those who went missing during Saddam's
24-year rule.
Amin was speaking during a visit to Bosnia, which dealt with its own legacy
of mass graves after a civil war in the 1990s, to ask for help in identifying
old remains.
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