IRAQ: Saddam Hussein's chief lawyer walks out of court, clashes with judge

Saddam Hussein's chief lawyer walked out of court on Monday (October 30) after presenting demands to end a boycott of the toppled Iraqi president's genocide trial. Khalil al-Dulaimi, who has since September been boycotting Saddam's genocide trial against the Kurds after the government sacked the previous judge, made a brief appearance in a Baghdad courtroom to present a list of 12 demands. They included an investigation into allegations that one of Saddam's co-defendants was beaten up by his prison guards last month and that the court allow defence counsel to have Arab and foreign lawyers in court. He also demanded a probe into documents he said went missing in the lawyers' Green Zone office. Chief judge Mohammed al-Ureybi, who took over the case in September, said Arab and foreign lawyers could only attend as advisors. Dulaimi then walked out of the courtroom and the proceedings continued with a court-appointed lawyer. Saddam, his cousin "Chemical Ali" Hassan al-Majid, and five other Iraqi commander are on trial for their roles in the 1988 Anfal (Spoil of War) campaign against ethnic Kurds in northern Iraq which prosecutors says killed 180,000 people. Saddam is awaiting a verdict for a separate trial for the killing of Shi'ite villagers, a ruling which carries the maximum penalty of death by hanging. Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari later said on Monday the case had "gone on too long" and the court should deliver its verdict soon. A verdict is expected by November 5 -- two days before U.S. elections in which President George W. Bush's Republicans fear they could lose control of Congress. The chief prosecutor told Reuters on Sunday (October 29) the verdict could be delayed by a few days.

ITN Source | October 30, 2006

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