Saddam lawyer's visit stopped

2004-12-08 17:16

Amman - Saddam Hussein's first meeting with a defence lawyer was abruptly cancelled on Wednesday, apparently because of pressure exerted by US authorities on the special Iraqi tribunal trying him, the chief of the former dictator's legal team said.

Ziad al-Khasawneh said in an interview that the Iraqi bar association obtained court permission last week for defence team member Khalil al-Duleimi, an Iraqi, to meet with Saddam on Wednesday.

"But the syndicate called the lawyer earlier today to say the meeting has been indefinitely postponed," said al-Khasawneh, who heads the Jordan-based legal team appointed by Saddam's wife Sajida.

"The abrupt cancellation indicates that there was a last-minute decision to ban the meeting," he said.

"That decision appears to have come from the top, neither from the court nor from the Iraqi government because both have no say in front of Iraq's real ruler, the United States of America."

"There was obviously an American veto on the meeting," he added.

Officials from the Iraqi bar association in Baghdad were not immediately available for comment.

An Iraqi interior ministry official said he had no information on the purported meeting.

US authorities have refused to let the legal team or other lawyers see the Iraqi dictator, who was arrested in December 2003 and is being held in a US-controlled jail.

No lawyer was at Saddam's side when he was arraigned July 1 in Baghdad on broad charges that included killing rival politicians over 30 years, gassing Kurds, invading Kuwait in 1990 and suppressing Kurdish and Shiite uprisings in 1991.

Saddam's legal team consists of 20 lead lawyers and another 1 500 volunteers.

The lead lawyers are from countries such as the United States, Britain, France, Jordan, Lebanon and Libya.

Most of the volunteer lawyers are from Arab countries.

- AP