Saddam's interrogation halted temporarily

The interrogation of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein has stopped until he appoints lawyers, the director of the Iraqi Special Tribunal said.

Salem Chalabi said the last time he saw Saddam, he told him to appoint an Iraqi lawyer, who could then can appoint foreign lawyers. Legally, defence counsel must be Iraqi citizens but the Tribunal will allow foreign consultants.

Saddam replied “fine, we’ll see,” Chalabi told a Kuwaiti newspaper.

“Interrogations … are not daily and, currently, neither we nor the Americans are interrogating him,” Chalabi said. ”We stopped interrogations until lawyers are appointed, and (the Americans) stopped them after they transferred his custody to us.”

Asked when the interrogations would resume, Chalabi said: ”Six months or more.”

He said the tribunal had received “unofficial requests” to visit Saddam from his wife Sajida, who is in Qatar, and his daughters Raghad, Rana and Hala, who are in Jordan. He did not tell say if their requests would be granted.

Sajida has appointed a 20-lawyer defence team to defend her husband, including a Jordanian lawyer who claims that repeated requests to see Saddam have not been answered.

Iraq is building a court for the trial of Saddam and his aides in Baghdad, Chalabi said. “There will be bullet-proof glass so that the (people) can see him without being able to harm him.”