Unite against America, Saddam urges from prison cell

Ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein urged his compatriots to remain united against the US occupation and warned of the potential dangers of the upcoming elections, his lawyers said today.

Iraqi lawyer Khalil al-Duleimi, met Saddam on Thursday, the first meeting since Saddam was captured a year ago.

“Our representative in Iraq told us that the president warned the people of Iraq and the Arabs to beware of the American scheme aimed at splitting Iraq into sectarian and religious divisions and weakening the (Arab) nation,” said Bushra Khalil, a Lebanese member of the defence team.

“The president sent recommendations to the Iraqi people to remain united and not fall in the trap of America’s slogans,” she said. “He said Kurds, Arabs, Shiites, Sunnis and Christians are all Iraqis who all have to stand united against the American plot.”

Al-Duleimi said the deposed leader was in good health and his morale was high, according to Ziad al-Khasawneh, who heads Saddam’s legal team.

Al-Duleimi came to Jordan late yesterday to brief the legal team on “the very fruitful 4-hour meeting with President Saddam”, said al-Khasawneh.

Saddam is kept in a 3-by-5-yard cell “which lacks any information medium or connection with the outside world,” al-Khasawneh told reporters. Al-Duleimi told the lawyers that Saddam did not see anyone except his guards and the ICRC representatives who have visited him four times since his capture.

Al-Duleimi told the lawyers he was taken to the meeting with Saddam in an armoured vehicle with darkened windows and did not know where in Baghdad Saddam was being held.

Al-Duleimi did not appear in the press conference attended by nine of the 20 lead lawyers as he had returned to Baghdad earlier today.

He told the other lawyers that Saddam had no news of Iraq or the outside world before the meeting. When al-Duleimi informed Saddam of Iraq’s upcoming elections, he urged caution.

“President Saddam recommended to the Iraqi people to be careful of this election, which will lead to dividing the Iraqi people and their land,” said al-Khasawneh.

When he heard aircraft flying over his detention location, Saddam said: “These are probably going to Fallujah. I live with their pain.”

Al-Khasawneh said Saddam signed an affidavit officially appointing the lawyers as his defence team. The team had been appointed earlier by Saddam’s wife, Sajida.

Saddam and 11 other defendants, all former members of the ousted Iraqi regime, appeared in court in Baghdad in July on charges of war crimes and genocide.

Yesterday, Ali Hassan al-Majid, the former general known as “Chemical Ali” and Saddam’s last defence minister, Sultan Hashim Ahmad, appeared in the first in a series of interrogatory hearings held to gather evidence for eventual trials of Iraq’s one-time Baathist leaders.

Interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi said on Tuesday that the 11 detained Saddam regime figures, plus the deposed dictator himself, would start appearing before court in the coming week – moving forward with the trials ahead of the January 30 national elections.