Saddam family demands international court trial

Saddam Hussein’s family wants the former Iraqi leader to be tried by an international court instead of a special tribunal set up by the US-installed Iraqi Governing Council, one of his daughters said today.

Raghad Saddam Hussein said her father appeared sedated in footage released by the US after his capture near his hometown of Tikrit.

“Every honest person who knows Saddam knows that he is firm and powerful. Saddam was tranquillized when captured,” she said in an interview with the Dubai-based Al-Arabiya television station.

“He would be a lion even when caged,” she said.

Raghad and her sister Rana are living in Amman, Jordan, where they were given asylum in July.

She said the family would appoint a lawyer to try to contact Saddam, whose whereabouts have not been released. US authorities say they are interrogating him at a secure location.

Raghad told Al-Arabiya that the family wanted her father to be tried by an international tribunal, rather than a special court set up last week by the 25-member Governing Council to deal with crimes against humanity allegedly committed by Saddam and other members of his regime.

“We demand a fair and legal trial, not one held by the Governing Council which was appointed by the occupier,” Raghad said.

“It should be fair and international. We should have the right to defend our father legally,” she said.

Saddam and his wife, Sajida Khairallah Telfah, had three daughters and two sons. The two brothers, Odai and Qusai, were killed in a shootout with US forces in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on July 22.

The two daughters had lived private lives and were seen by some as victims of Saddam, who ordered their husbands killed in 1996.