Hussein’s Lawyers Cut Ties to Court

Problems in the trial of Saddam Hussein and his co-defendants deepened Wednesday as defense lawyers said they had stopped working with the Iraqi tribunal and considered the next court date canceled.

Khalil Dulaimi, head of the defense team, released a statement saying that the defense considered the Nov. 28 trial date “null and void” after attacks on several lawyers, “unless there is a direct, neutral international intervention that guarantees” the team’s safety.

The lawyers had previously threatened a boycott unless security was improved.

If defense lawyers do not attend the next hearing, the court can delay the proceedings or appoint other attorneys to defend the eight former officials. The men are being tried on charges of crimes against humanity.

The trial, intended to bring closure to victims of the Hussein regime while showcasing the new Iraqi judicial system, has instead become a violent whodunit that threatens to further destabilize the country. In the three weeks since the trial began, two lawyers on Hussein’s defense team have been killed and a third wounded. Authorities have no suspects.

Masked gunmen killed Adel Zubeidi, who had been defending former Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan, and injured Thamer Hamoud Khuzai in a drive-by shooting in Baghdad on Tuesday. On Oct. 20, the day after the trial opened, defense attorney Saadoun Janabi was kidnapped and executed. Janabi represented Awad Hamed Bandar, the former head of Hussein’s Revolutionary Court.

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani urged authorities Wednesday to provide security for the remaining lawyers and demanded that the defense team accept the protection, a spokesperson for Talabani said.

The lawyers have previously refused the government’s offers of protection, saying they did not trust the security services. They have requested gun permits so their private security team can bear arms.

They also have rejected a proposal to move into the heavily fortified Green Zone, where the trial is being held, arguing that it would compromise their independence.

Defense lawyer Majid Sadoon said his colleagues were negotiating with Americans to secure protection. The Iraqi government, he said, was infiltrated by Shiite Muslim militiamen allegedly connected to Janabi’s killing. Unless the attorneys’ slayings are investigated, the defense will have no dealings with the tribunal, he said.

“We want the truth to be revealed,” Sadoon said, adding that the ousted Iraqi president and his co-defendants would refuse to accept court-appointed lawyers or attend any trial sessions.

The eight men are charged with planning and ordering the revenge killings of 146 people from the town of Dujayl, where a 1982 assassination attempt against the former president took place.

Richard Dicker, director of Human Rights Watch’s International Justice Program, said that Iraqi and U.S. officials should focus on addressing the security issue because protecting the defense team was central to conducting a fair and credible trial.

“The killing of two defense lawyers is hardly a trivial issue,” he said.

“There are definitely grounds for the attorneys to be concerned about their security,” he said. “We think the government of Iraq, the tribunal and its American advisors should make every effort that meaningful and reasonable protection be provided for the defense attorneys.”

A spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad said that all parties had been offered “various kinds of protective measures,” but he would not be more specific.

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Times staff writer Zainab Hussein and Associated Press contributed to this report.