Lawyer: No chance of fair trial

2004-07-01 22:02

Paris - A French lawyer on a team set up to defend Saddam Hussein said on Thursday that the deposed Iraqi leader cannot get a fair trial because fear and vengeance will prevail.

"The tribunal being put in place by the Americans is a disguised execution squad," Emmanuel Ludot said in a telephone interview.

"These judges are still under the shock of emotion and pain," he said. Saddam "will either be judged in fear or in vengeance".

Ludot spoke from Amman, Jordan, where the team's leader, Mohammad Rashdan, a Jordanian lawyer, is based. Rashdan was hired by Saddam's wife, Sajida Khairallah Telfah.

Ludot spoke just hours after Saddam's arraignment. It was his first court appearance since being captured seven months ago, on December 13, 2003, by US forces.

The team is trying to make a visit to Baghdad, but Ludot and others said it faces major security problems, complicated by an alleged threat from Iraqi Justice Minister Malek Dohan al-Hassan.

Ludot said at least one team member had been told that "if we come to Baghdad we will be cut into pieces".

Ludot said he considered those words as a "direct threat because he doesn't want foreign lawyers" to defend Saddam.

Non-Iraqi lawyers - except Syrians and Palestinians - must get approval from the Iraqi Bar Association, Baghdad attorney Walid Mohammed al-Shibibi, editor of a legal journal, has said.

Ludot said it is inaccurate to say that Iraqi law prohibited foreign attorneys from taking on a case in Iraq.

Speaking with the LCI television station, Ludot reiterated his thinking that Saddam's trial cannot be fair.

"Can one decently judge Saddam Hussein with a court made in the USA? For American interests so that he can be executed as quickly as possible?" Ludot said.

He also reiterated the team's contention that Saddam was illegally arrested and illegally detained by US-led forces who entered Iraq without a mandate from the United Nations.

- AP