Saddam defence team: Witnesses arrested

Four defence witnesses in the trial of Saddam Hussein were arrested after giving their testimony this week, Saddam’s chief lawyer said from Jordan today, accusing Iraqi authorities of trying to intimidate them.

Among the four arrested after yesterday’s session of the court was a witness who testified that some Shiites whom Saddam is on trial for killing are still alive, said the lawyer, Khalil al-Dulaimi.

“They were arrested simply because their dared to speak the truth, to say that President Saddam is innocent of the crimes levelled against him,” al-Dulaimi said on arrival from neighbouring Iraq.

He said the arrests were an “attempt to scare off the defence and our witnesses, who have over the past few days uncovered the lies in the indictment”.

Court officials could not be reached for comment.

Saddam and his seven co-defendants are on trial for crimes against humanity in a crackdown against Shiites in the 1980s launched after an assassination attempt against Saddam in the town of Dujail.

Among the charges, they are accused of wrongfully killing 148 Shiites who were sentenced to death for the attack on the former Iraqi president.

On Tuesday, an anonymous witness, testifying from behind a screen to protect him from reprisals as many of the trial’s witnesses have done, said that 23 of the 148 Shiites were still alive and that he had seen them recently in Dujail.

Chief judge Raouf Abel-Rahman ordered an investigation into the claims and said the witness should be kept in the heavily fortified Green Zone district where the trial is being held to help in the probe.

Al-Dulaimi said the detentions of the four were not a preventive measure to ensure the security of the witnesses and said the arrests were punitive.

The trial is scheduled to resume on Monday.