Saddam's lawyers plead with world leaders

Saddam Hussein’s chief lawyer today implored world leaders to prevent the United States from handing over the ousted leader to Iraqi authorities for execution, saying the former dictator should enjoy protect from his enemies as a “prisoner of war".

Iraq’s highest court today rejected Saddam’s appeal against his conviction and death sentence for the killing of 148 Shiites in the northern city of Dujail in 1982. The court said the former president should be hanged within 30 days.

“According to the international conventions it is forbidden to hand a prisoner of war to his adversary,” said Saddam’s lawyer, Khalil al-Dulaimi.

“I urge all the international and legal organisations, the United Nations secretary-general, the Arab League and all the leaders of the world to rapidly prevent the American administration from handing the president to the Iraqi authorities,” he said.

An official close to Iraqi prime minister Nouri Maliki has said that Saddam would remain in a US military prison until he is handed over to Iraqi authorities on the day of his execution.

Al-Dulaimi warned that turning over Saddam to the Iraqis would increase the sectarian violence that already is tearing the country apart.

“If the American administration insists in handing the president to the Iraqis, it would commit a great strategic mistake which would lead to the escalation of the violence in Iraq and the eruption of a destructive civil war,” he said.

Attacks today killed at least 28 Iraqis, while the US military announced the deaths of four American soldiers and a Marine.

In Baghdad, a suicide bomber carrying two empty plastic containers joined a crowd of people lining up to buy kerosene near a stadium, said Brig. Abdul-Karim Khalaf, a spokesman for the Iraqi Interior Ministry. The attacker then detonated his explosive-laden belt, killing at least 10 people and injuring 20 others.

Two bombs also exploded opposite a park in the South Gate area of Baghdad, killing nine people and wounding 43, a police officer said on condition of anonymity because of security concerns.

Another blast targeted a police patrol in western Baghdad but missed, killing two civilians instead, police said. Four people were wounded.

Gunmen wearing police uniforms attacked an army checkpoint in the city of Balad north of Baghdad, killing three Iraqi troops and wounding eight people, authorities said. A bomb also killed an Iraqi soldier in a military vehicle near Qazaniya, close to the Iranian border, police said.

The US military said three US soldiers died in roadside bombs yesterday. Two soldiers were killed when a bomb exploded near their foot patrol south-west of Baghdad, and one died in a bombing in an eastern section of the Iraqi capital.

A US Marine was killed in combat in western Anbar province yesterday, the military said.

With 99 American troops dead so far this month, December is the second-deadliest month of 2006 for US military personnel. At least 105 troops died in October.

Meanwhile, the US Embassy said it believes four American security contractors and an Austrian are still being held captive after being kidnapped in southern Iraq six weeks ago.

The men went missing Nov. 16 when a large convoy of trucks being escorted by their Crescent Security Group was hijacked on a highway near Safwan, a city on the border with Kuwait. Suspected militiamen dressed in Iraqi police uniforms ambushed the convoy, taking 14 hostages, including the five security guards, and nine truck drivers who were later released.

“At this time, US officials believe the American citizens are still being held by their captors,” embassy spokesman Lou Fintor said, without elaborating.

A video of the kidnapped Americans reportedly surfaced this week, showing them to be alive and in good condition. The footage, reported by McClatchy Newspapers, was believed to have been made about a month ago. If authentic, it would be the first proof that all five men survived the ambush.

Against the backdrop of sectarian killings that have dragged Sunni Arabs and Shiite Muslims into civil warfare, Saddam urged Iraqis in a letter posted on a website yesterday to “remember that God has enabled you to become an example of love, forgiveness and brotherly coexistence.”

However, he also voiced support for the Sunni Arab-dominated insurgency, saying: “Long live jihad and the mujahedeen.” He urged Iraqis to be patient and rely on God’s help in fighting “against the unjust nations.”

An official from prime minister Maliki’s Dawa Party, said yesterday that “the government wants Saddam executed as soon as possible".

Issam Ghazzawi, another member of Saddam’s defense team, said there was no way of knowing when the former dictator’s execution would take place. “The only person who can predict the execution of the president ... is God and (President) Bush,” Ghazzawi said Thursday.

Saddam is in the midst of another trial, charged with genocide and other crimes during a 1987-88 military crackdown on Kurds in northern Iraq. That trial was adjourned until Jan. 8, but experts have said the trial of Saddam’s co-defendants is likely to continue even if he is executed.