Saddam trial lawyer killed

2005-10-21 13:11

Baghdad - A defence lawyer in Saddam Hussein's mass murder trial who was kidnapped has been found dead, his body dumped near a Baghdad mosque, police and a top lawyers' union official said on Friday.

Saadoun Sughaiyer al-Janabi was abducted from his office on Thursday evening, a day after he participated in the first session of the trial, acting as the lawyer of one Saddam's seven co-defendants.

His body, with two bullet shots to the head, was found hours later on a sidewalk near Fardous Mosque in the eastern neighbourhood of Ur, near the site of his office, said police Major Falah al-Mohammedawi. His identity was confirmed on Friday, al-Mohammedawi said.

Diaa al-Saadi, a senior lawyers syndicate official, said al-Janabi's family confirmed to him al-Janabi was dead. "He was killed. It is confirmed," al-Saadi said.

"This will have grave repercussions. This will hinder lawyers from defending those held for political reasons," al-Saadi warned.

The killing was the first setback for a tribunal that has been held under tight security.

Heavy protection was provided for prosecutors and judges in the Saddam trial, on the theory that they were likely targets of pro-Saddam insurgents seeking revenge. Their names have not been revealed and their faces were not shown in the broadcast of Wednesday's opening session - with the exception of the presiding judge and the top prosecutor, whose identities were revealed for the first time just before the trial.

But security measures do not appear to have been extended to the defence lawyers for Saddam and his seven co-defendants.

Al-Janabi was defending Awad Hamed al-Bandar, the former head of Saddam's Revolutionary Court. Saddam and the seven top officials from his Baath regime face a possible death sentence if convicted in their trial on charges of murder and torture in a 1982 massacre of 148 Shiites in the town of Dujail. - Sapa-AP

- SAPA