Saddam’s lawyers see trial from Jordan

who claim to represent Saddam Hussein cried out in protest as they watched television pictures of the Iraqi dictator appearing before a judge today, saying they should have been by his side.

Saddam’s appearance at an arraignment held in what had been one of his palace compounds dominated Arab TV.

It was perhaps watched nowhere as closely as in the Amman, Jordan, offices of lawyers who say they were appointed to defend Saddam by the ousted dictator’s wife, Sajidah.

“This is tyranny and absolute cruelty,” said Ziad al-Khasawneh, one of 20 lawyers on the Saddam defence team.

“How can this be called a fair trial if President Saddam Hussein, may God bless him, was denied his basic right to a lawyer?”

Another team member, Tim Hughes of Britain’s Bevan Ashford consultancy firm, was asked how he could defend a man infamous for atrocities against his own people.

Hughes said the team “respects that everybody has the right to be defended”.

“It is a fundamental human right and we respect this fundamental human right,” he said.

Hughes said he and his colleagues were “kept in the dark” about the proceedings. He said the lawyers were ready to go to Iraq, but “we will be wanting to have full assurances” of their safety.

The defence team, which includes lawyers from Jordan, Lebanon, Tunisia, Libya and Western countries like the United States, Britain, France and Belgium, is headed by Jordanian Mohammed Rashdan.