EQUIPO NIZKOR |
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17oct05
Saddam's lawyer accuses US of not allowing preparation for case.
Saddam Hussein's lead lawyer has accused American of not allowing him to properly prepare the case for his client. "All my meetings with him are being done under severe American monitoring," says Khalil Dulaimi in an interview being published in the upcoming issue of Newsweek magazine. "We're not even allowed to exchange the legal documents in the case."
But Saddam Hussein, his lawyer says, is preparing his own. He is studying "a small book of the Geneva Conventions," the rules of war that American forces have been accused of violating in Iraq.
"He and millions of Iraqis insist he is the legitimate president," Dulaimi tells Newsweek. "He was deposed by an external armed force that was not based in its aggression on any legal cause or justification."
In determining his defense strategy, the magazine says Saddam is also reportedly looking to other former dictators for inspiration. US officials, it adds, fear that when he goes on trial this week for crimes against humanity, he will try to emulate the grandstanding of Slobodan Milosevic, the former Serb leader.
"Saddam monitored Milosevic's performance at The Hague and was very impressed with it," former US occupation spokesman Dan Senor was quoted as saying. Senor, the reports says, worries that the trial will "inflame" Sunni insurgents in the short run. Like Milosevic, Saddam Hussein plans to argue that his captors have no right to try him at all.
"He thinks that anything being done under occupation is illegitimate," says another one of Saddam's lawyers, Khamis Obaidi.
[Source: Zee News, NY, 17Oct05]
 | This document has been published on 26Nov05 by the Equipo Nizkor and Derechos Human Rights. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. |