Saddam lawyer says access to client denied

AMMAN - Saddam Hussein's defence lawyers said on Monday they had received no response from the US administration in Iraq and the International Committee of the Red Cross to repeated requests to see their client.

Lawyers representing the ousted leader also said they were ready to represent Iraqi prisoners abused by US and British soldiers, whose pictures angered people around the world.

"We are willing to take legal action against the US administration and the Red Cross if they don't allow us to see President Saddam," said Jordanian lawyer Mohammad Rashdan, one of a 20-strong legal team appointed by Saddam's wife to represent him.

Rashdan told Reuters in Amman his team had received no response so far to requests to visit Saddam.

The US-appointed Governing Council is setting up a war crimes tribunal and has already chosen judges to try Saddam, who was captured in December, on charges that may include genocide and crimes against humanity.

Washington has said 66-year-old Saddam, whose interrogation was being led by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), should be tried in Iraq.

Rashdan told Reuters no war crimes tribunal had the right to try the former Iraqi president because the US-led invasion that toppled him was itself illegal.

"It was an illegal act and every step or decision that follows, including forming the court that would try Saddam, is illegitimate as well," said Rashdan.

Human rights groups fear that Iraq under US occupation lacks the people and institutions to conduct fair trials.

Salem Chalabi, a US-educated lawyer in charge of administering the special tribunal that will try Saddam, said he expected prosecutors to seek the death penalty for the former Iraqi strongman and officials of his Baath Party.

Rashdan said the legal team, hailing from the Arab world, the United States and France, was ready to represent the abused Iraqi prisoners.

"According to international humanitarian laws and the Geneva conventions, The US and Britain should either bring things back the way they were before the invasion or compensate the Iraqi people for every crime committed since," he said.

The first of seven US soldiers charged with abusing detainees will face a public trial later this month, the US military said on Sunday.

Rashdan showed Reuters the power of attorney statement signed by Sajida Khairallah Tilfa on January, 11, 2004. He said the statement, which also had the support of Saddam's daughters Raghad, Rana and Hala, was signed in Syria.

French Lawyer Jacques Verges, who said in March that Saddam's nephew had asked him to defend the former Iraqi dictator, was not a member of the group, Rashdan said.

Verges is known for defending Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie and international guerrilla Carlos the Jackal.

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq