Lawyer, 80, may defend Saddam
2004-03-29 12:22
Paris - Jacques Verges, a French lawyer who has made his name representing controversial defendants, claims he has been contacted by Saddam Hussein's family to act during his trial, the Guardian reported.
He said Saddam's nephew, Ali al-Tikriti, had written to him, authorising him to defend Saddam.
But Verges, 80, who defended the Nazi leader Klaus Barbie and the Venezuelan terrorist Carlos the Jackal, said he doubted whether Saddam would ever appear in the dock.
"My concern is not the trial," he told the radio station France Inter. "My concern is they'll kill him before it."
He believes Saddam would be assassinated in captivity.
Verges said he would demand the presence of US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger as key witnesses at the case.
He said he had no qualms about defending Saddam, whose crimes were "minor" compared to the deaths caused by the UN embargo and US and British bombing rains on Iraq.
US officials who have been helping Iraqi lawyers set up a special tribunal for senior members of the Ba'athist regime said it was "highly unlikely" Saddam's trial would open this year.
"The first trials will probably be of lesser defendants," a coalition official said. "They may help to build the case against their boss," he said.