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Second lawyer in Saddam trial assassinated
(AP)
Updated: 2005-11-09 07:53
"The aim of these organized attacks is to scare Arab and foreign lawyers," al-Dulaimi told Al-Jazeera television. "We call upon the international community, especially the secretary-general of the United Nations, to send an investigative committee because the situation is unbearable."
Saddam and seven co-defendants went on trial Oct. 19 in a special court in the heavily guarded Green Zone. They are charged in the 1982 deaths of 148 Shiite Muslims in Dujail following an assassination attempt against Saddam in that town north of Baghdad.
Trial judge Rizgar Mohammed Amin postponed the proceedings until Nov. 28 to allow the defense time to prepare.
After the killing of the first lawyer, defense attorneys announced they would not cooperate with the court and would refuse to appear at the next session until they were satisfied with security. Kubba said the lawyers twice turned down invitations to move to the Green Zone, where they could be protected by U.S. and other international troops.
The United States condemned a fatal attack in Iraq against defense lawyers defending some of Saddam Hussein's co-defendants, killing Adil Mohammed Abbas, lawyer for former vice president Taha Yassin Ramadan and wounding Tamer Hamud Hadi, pictured October 2005, who is a lawyer for Barzan al-Tikriti. [AFP/file] |
In a statement, U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Elizabeth Colton said the United States "considers defense counsel a vital part of the judicial process" and puts a priority on their security. "All parties have been offered various security measures and some have accepted," she added.
The United States has worked for years to train an Iraqi judiciary to conduct the proceedings by international standards.
Richard Dicker, an expert in international law at the New York-based Human Rights Watch, said a fair trial is impossible "if effective measures are not implemented to provide security for defense attorney who are clearly at risk."
Elise Groulx, president of the International Criminal Defense Attorneys Association, voiced similar concerns.
"If we want the trial to restore peace and security to this country, we have to ensure it is fair and effective. Of course, there can be no legitimate, fair trial if there is no effective defense," Groulx said.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan acknowledged the necessity of ensuring "that you have the security environment in place for those trials to proceed and for witnesses to be able to participate in the trial as well in a secure way."
In other developments Tuesday:
_The U.S. military said Marines and Iraqi troops had secured Husaybah after four days of fighting with al-Qaida-led insurgents in the town on the Syrian border. Commanders had described the town as a major entry point for foreign fighters sneaking into Iraq from Syria.
_Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, during a visit to Rome, repeated his prediction that his country's security forces will be ready to begin taking over from coalition troops around the end of next year.
_One civilian was killed when gunmen opened fire in the Dora district in the capital.
_A car bomb exploded near Baghdad's Mustansiriyah University, killing one person and injuring another.
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