Gunmen abduct, kill one of Saddam's main lawyers

Saddam Hussein

BAGHDAD - Gunmen kidnapped and killed one of Saddam Hussein's chief defence lawyers and dumped his body in a Baghdad street, police said yesterday.

Khamis al-Obaidi is the third defence lawyer to be killed since the trial against Saddam and seven co-accused on charges of crimes against humanity began in October and is likely to revive complaints Iraq's violence is hindering a fair trial.

It came two days after the chief prosecutor demanded a death penalty for Saddam and three of his former top aides for their roles in a crackdown on Shi'ite villagers following a 1982 attempt on the ousted leader's life.

Police said Obaidi's body was found yesterday. He had been kidnapped in the insurgent stronghold of Doura, one of the capital's most violent districts, police said.

Obaidi had been in court during Monday's session.

He told Reuters late last year that, unlike most of his fellow defence attorneys, he preferred to stay in Iraq during court recesses: "Whatever will be will be," he said.

The killing of Obaidi dealt a fresh blow to the US-backed court, which has also been marred by the resignation of the previous chief judge and complaints from the defence and international human rights groups that Iraq's sectarian tension makes a fair trial impossible.

Saddam and his aides, along with many of their counsel, are from the Sunni Arab minority which accuses the US-backed, Shi'ite-led majority government of persecuting them.

On October 20, 2005, the day after Saddam's trial started, Saadoun Janabi, defence lawyer for the former head of Saddam's Revolutionary Court, Awad Hamed al-Bander, was abducted from his office and killed. Neighbours said the attackers told them they were from the Interior Ministry.

Gunmen killed Adil al-Zubeidi, a lawyer working for Saddam's half brother, Barzan al-Tikriti and his former vice president Taha Yassin Ramadan in November 2005 and wounded a colleague, who later fled Iraq.

Saddam and the other defendants face charges of crimes against humanity for their roles in the killings, torture and executions that followed an attempt on the Iraqi leader's life in the village of Dujail. If found guilty they face death by hanging. Further trials are planned, however.

Defence lawyers were due to make their summing up for each of the eight defendants on July 10.

Saddam, a Sunni, has admitted he ordered Dujail trials that led to executions of members of the long-oppressed Shi'ite majority now in power but said it was his legal right because he was the head of state at a time of war with neighbouring Iran.

- REUTERS