Hussein's lawyer: trial 'illegitimate'
By Jill Carroll and Alan Enwia
from the October 19, 2005 edition -
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/1019/p11s01-woiq.html
BAGHDAD - Saddam Hussein's lawyers won't defend their client
against charges that he ordered at least 140 people killed in an
Iraqi village 23 years ago. Instead his defense team will rest
on rejecting the entire legal process as illegitimate and
rigged.
Khalil Dulaimi, the lead defense lawyer, says he'll tell the
Iraqi Special Tribunal that the court is illegal and
unconstitutional. He'll say that the investigative judges
restricted meetings with his client and hindered other key steps
in assembling a proper defense.
The court "is built on the US invasion and they had no legal
reason or motive to invade this country, not from the Security
Council or the United Nations. That means everything built on
that foundation is illegitimate," Mr. Dulaimi told the Monitor.
"The rights of my client are being violated in a very obvious
way by the Iraqi and American governments and that is
unacceptable."
The tribunal was created by US occupation authorities and was
funded by Washington.
Dulaimi is expected Wednesday to ask the court for more time to
prepare his case, saying he was only given 15 days. The five
judges, who received training in Britain, hearing the case are
expected to adjourn to consider Dulaimi's requests and may not
resume the trial for weeks.
"They did this on purpose. They did this to not let us
concentrate and to shatter the defense," says Dulaimi, a Baghdad
lawyer who was hired by Mr. Hussein's oldest daughter, Raghad
Saddam Hussein, last year.
But the tribunal said in an Aug. 10 statement that evidence had
been given to the defense lawyers: "Defense counsel were
informed by a notification warrant explaining the rights and
duties of the defense .... They were informed about all obtained
evidence in the Al-Dujail case, and were provided the copies of
witness testimony," it said.
Hussein and seven other top officials in his regime are being
charged with ordering the massacre in the village of Dujail in
1982 in retaliation for an assassination attempt on Hussein
there. A motorcade carrying Hussein through the town dominated
by the majority Shiites was fired upon by several gunmen. The
city north of Baghdad was also known to be a stronghold of the
Dawa Party, a Shiite Islamist group that had worked for years as
an opposition movement to Hussein and to which membership was
punished by death under Hussein.
After the attack, the participants that survived fled to Iran.
One of the party's earliest members who lived in exile for
decades after several family members were killed by Hussein's
regime is the current Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari.
Dulaimi has met with Hussein on several occasions but he was
barred from exchanging any documents and was not allowed to see
him alone, all things he says made it impossible to build a
strong defense. "All these meetings were worthless," he says.
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=======================

CLICK:
IRAQGATE
"Spider's Web": United States Illegally Armed Saddam Hussein
2002/11/16 "Spider's Web": The Secret History Of How The United
States Illegally Armed Saddam Hussein; "A Conversation With The
Journalist Who Broke The Iraqgate Scandal That Involved
President George Bush, James Baker And Donald Rumsfeld"
http://www.apfn.org/apfn/iraqgate.htm
Who’s Afraid of the Big, Bad Saddam?
A Commentary:
I have a confession to make: I’m not afraid of Saddam Hussein.
Not a bit. I have absolutely no fear that the man is going to
come and get me or that he is going to spray biological or
chemical weapons on me or that he will send someone to do the
dirty deed for him. I don’t even fear the possibility that
Saddam will nuke me.
http://www.apfn.org/Saddam-Hussein/bad.htm
Eight Facts About Iraq
http://www.apfn.net/messageboard/01-02-04/discussion.cgi.16.html
The Evil Dick Cheney
... discreetly through several subsidiaries in Europe, the
transactions helped Saddam Hussein retain his grip ...
http://www.apfn.org/apfn/dcheney.htm
THE ATTACK ON IRAQ
http://www.apfn.org/apfn/iraq_war.htm
Dan Rather Suggests Bush Is Manipulating The Media?
http://www.apfn.org/Saddam-Hussein/media.htm
The Trial Of Saddam Hussein
http://www.apfn.org/apfn/saddam.htm
WAR PROPAGANDA AND THE CAPTURE OF SADDAM HUSSEIN
http://www.apfn.net/messageboard/01-18-04/discussion.cgi.51.html
GEORGE W. BUSH ON “Meet the Press” 2/08/04
http://www.apfn.net/messageboard/02-10-04/discussion.cgi.73.html
Missing U.S.-Iraq History
http://www.apfn.net/messageboard/01-02-04/discussion.cgi.3.html
Dick Cheney, NBC, "Meet the Press,"
http://www.apfn.net/messageboard/04-07-04/discussion.cgi.67.html
BUSH ADMIN LIES ABOUT IRAQ'S WMD "QUOTES"
http://www.apfn.net/messageboard/02-10-04/discussion.cgi.25.html
Saddam's Imposter
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America, Iraq and Presidential Leadership
http://www.apfn.net/messageboard/01-14-04/discussion.cgi.19.html
Kennedy: Bush Broke Faith with Americans on Iraq
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Sen. Kennedy Indictment of President G.W. Bush Part 1
http://www.apfn.net/messageboard/03-06-04/discussion.cgi.19.html
(Cont'd) Sen. Kennedy Indictment of President G.W. Bush Part 2
http://www.apfn.net/messageboard/03-06-04/discussion.cgi.20.html
U.S. officials contemplate interrogation of Saddam
http://www.apfn.net/messageboard/01-09-04/discussion.cgi.22.html
BUSH "NO EVIDENCE LINKING SADDAM TO 9/11
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“intelligence failure” fraud - Bush’s Iraq commission
http://www.apfn.net/messageboard/02-07-04/discussion.cgi.24.html
--------------------
UPDATE 10/22/05
Leak Case Renews Questions on War's Rationale
New York Times - 6 hours ago
WASHINGTON, Oct. 22 - The legal and political stakes are of the
highest order, but the investigation into the disclosure of a
covert CIA officer's identity is also just one skirmish in the
continuing battle ...
Possible cover-up a focus in CIA leak case: lawyers Khaleej
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