Abducted Lawyer in Iraq Trial Slain

A lawyer for one of seven men standing trial with Saddam Hussein was found bound and shot to death outside a mosque not far from the Baghdad neighborhood in which he was kidnapped, Iraqi authorities said Friday.

The body of Saadoun Janabi was discovered Thursday night in the capital’s Ur neighborhood. Janabi had been kidnapped only an hour earlier by 20 gunmen who stormed his office in north Baghdad’s Shaab district and whisked him away in a pickup truck.

Janabi, 58, was defending the former head of Hussein’s Revolutionary Court, Awad Hamed Bandar, against charges that he unjustly convicted Shiite Muslim residents in the town of Dujayl and sentenced them to death. Bandar, Hussein and six other defendants face possible death sentences in a 1982 massacre in Dujayl.

In other violence around Iraq, at least four U.S. service members were killed in the western province of Al Anbar, and in the southern city of Basra, several people died in police raids on a political party headquarters.

A bomb killed three Marines driving near Fallouja on Thursday, and a soldier in Hit died of wounds caused by indirect fire, coalition officials said Friday.

In Basra, more than 100 Iraqi police officers raided the offices of the Thar Allah Party on Thursday. Police also stormed the home of party Chairman Yossef Mossawi. As many as four party members and one police officer were killed in the incidents and at least a dozen people were wounded, witnesses said.

“We were sitting in the home of Yossef Mossawi. There were 14 of us,” said Molaa Mossawi, another party leader and a cousin of the chairman. “We were surprised to see 25 police trucks with more than 100 policemen who started firing on us without any warning. We tried to resist them with the four machine guns we had.”

Party members said police burned down their headquarters after the siege and destroyed five cars belonging to the organization. Two members were arrested.

Nadhem Jabari, a spokesman for Basra’s provincial council, said police raided the party chairman’s home because of theft allegations. “The governor ordered the police to raid the house of Sayid Yossef to arrest him for stealing a government car,” Jabari said.

Thar Allah officials accused Al Fadila al Islamiya, or Islamic Virtue Party, which has a slim majority in the council, of using violence to further its political interests.

“I know this came from the Fadila party and not from the Iraqi government, but the governor used his position and ordered some of the police forces and others of Fadila party disguised as police to attack us,” Molaa Mossawi said.

Basra Gov. Mohammed Musabah Waily, who is a member of Fadila, could not be reached for comment.

Fadila and Thar Allah are Shiite organizations. Fadila has a strong presence in southern provinces while Thar Allah has a more marginal role.

Basra, Iraq’s second-largest city, has seen a wave of sectarian-driven assassinations this year, and militia members are believed to have infiltrated the police force.

Sheik Mansor Kanan, a National Assembly member from Basra, said Thursday’s events highlighted the divisions threatening to destabilize the port city. Police loyalties are divided among the major political parties, which are jostling for position ahead of the Dec. 15 parliamentary election, he said.

In Baghdad, lawyers were concerned that Janabi’s slaying would damage the credibility of Iraq’s judicial system. Richard Dicker, a lawyer with Human Rights Watch, said he feared that the slaying would “have a chilling effect on the willingness of competent lawyers to vigorously defend the accused in these cases.”

Dicker emphasized the environment of insecurity surrounding the trials. “Judges, prosecutors, victims, witnesses and defense counsel are exposing themselves to grave risks,” he said.

Dicker called on the government to provide tighter security for defense lawyers. Before Janabi’s death, the conventional wisdom was that the prosecutors and judges would be at greatest risk. Their faces were hidden from television cameras covering the trial, while Janabi’s was broadcast around the world.

Laith Kubba, a spokesman for Prime Minister Ibrahim Jafari, condemned the killing and pledged that the government would do a better job protecting trial participants.

“We strongly condemn this cowardly assassination which benefits no one but those who want to show that there is no place in the new Iraq for full justice,” Kubba said. “Every accused person has the right to a full defense, even if that person is Saddam Hussein.”

In Friday sermons, Shiite clerics called for the former Iraqi president’s swift conviction and execution and scoffed at his courtroom bravado during Wednesday’s hearing. Imam Sadruddin Qubanchi said in Najaf that legal justice was more than Hussein deserved.

“The death penalty is the smallest punishment for him and his aides,” Qubanchi said. “Let the U.S. know that Iraqis want Saddam to be executed. And if this would not happen, then the U.S. should be the next one put on trial.”

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A Times special correspondent in Basra contributed to this report.