Saddam 'not refusing food'
2004-12-12 19:21
Baghdad, Iraq - Some of Iraq's high-profile detainees have been turning back meals, but continue to snack on military rations, the US military said on Sunday.
Saddam Hussein was not among them, a US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said.
He said he had received reports that several of the detainees were refusing to eat their main meals but were snacking on the US military rations they are allowed to keep through the day.
The official said Saddam Hussein was not among them and remains in good health. He was checking how many of Saddam's 11 top lieutenants in the former Baathist regime were among them.
Badee Izzat Aref, an Iraqi lawyer appointed by the family of former deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz, said another lawyer told him that many of the detainees who were among the 55 most-wanted in Iraq "went on a hunger strike".
"They don't acknowledge the legality of their trials or their detention," Aref said. But he added that he had no first-hand knowledge of the apparent hunger strike.
The US military official acknowledged that a lawyer had visited one of the detainees Sunday, but would not say which.
Saddam's lawyer said he had not met with the former dictator.
- AP