Saddam lawyer says October trial gives too little time to prepare defence

LAWYERS for former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein complained yesterday that plans to start his trial next month gave him too little time to prepare his defence.

British-based lawyer Abdel Haq Alani also said Saddam’s defence attorneys are being kept in the dark on charges against him and doubted that the trial would start on October 19 as announced by Iraqi officials.

Saddam’s family called on his new legal team to highlight alleged breaches of the Iraqi former dictator’s human rights since he was captured and imprisoned.

Raghad Hussein, his eldest daughter, is assembling a new panel of international legal experts to represent her father and claims he is being treated unlawfully.

Following meetings with supporters from Iraq, Jordan, Yemen, Sudan and Lebanon, she said: “Participants discussed the recent developments of trial and the conditions of detention of President Saddam Hussein and his comrades which breach all human rights international laws, treaties and conventions.”

Saddam was captured by US troops in December 2003 and photographs released of him in detention have shown him looking thin and drawn.

The Iraqi Special Tribunal has accused him over the 1982 massacre of 143 Shi’ite Muslims in Dujail, a town north of Baghdad, after a foiled assassination attempt. If found guilty, he could receive the death penalty.

Government spokesman Laith Kubba said seven others from the regime would also face trial over the massacre, including: Barazan Ibrahim, former intelligence chief and Saddam’s half-brother; former Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan; and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, then a Ba’ath Party official in Dujail.

If the trial starts next month, Mr Alani said it will “undercut the defence capability to review the case.”

“How can one review thousands and thousands of pages in just a matter of a few days?” he asked.