Former US attorney general joins Saddam's defence
(Reuters)
Updated: 2005-11-28 14:47

The trial of Saddam Hussein and seven co-defendants resumes in a fortified Baghdad courtroom on Monday with former U.S. attorney general Ramsey Clark joining the team defending Iraq's overthrown president.

Clark, a controversial figure who was the top U.S. attorney in the late 1960s before becoming an anti-Vietnam war activist and a defender of figures including Slobodan Milosevic, said he hoped to strengthen Saddam's defence.

"Our plan is to go to court in Baghdad on Monday morning representing the defence counsel as defence support," Clark told Reuters in Amman on Sunday before flying to the Iraqi capital.

"A fair trial in this case is absolutely imperative for historical truth," said the 77-year-old, who has also offered advice to former Liberian leader Charles Taylor in the past.

"It is absolutely essential that the court is legal in its constitution. A court cannot be a court unless it is absolutely independent of all external pressures and forces."

Clark will be joined by the former justice minister of Qatar, Najeeb al-Nauimi, lending an international aspect to proceedings which have until now been entirely Iraqi run.

Former attorney general Ramsey Clark is shown on June 15, 2005. [Reuters/file]

It was not clear if the chief judge of the trial, Rizgar Mohammed Amin, would allow Clark and Nauimi into his courtroom, but a spokeswoman for the defence team said their attendance had already been approved by U.S. advisers to the court.

An official close to the court said that no application had so far been made by Saddam's defence team to have international observers -- such as Clark and Nauimi -- in the court.

The trial began on October 19 and is resuming after a 40-day adjournment, granted to give the defence more time to prepare for a trial involving charges of crimes against humanity.

Most of the break has been taken up with security issues after one defence lawyer was murdered the day after the trial began and another in early November, throwing proceedings into chaos. A third defence lawyer has fled Iraq after death threats.

Saddam and the others are accused of ordering and carrying out the deaths of 148 men from the town of Dujail, north of Baghdad, following an attempt on Saddam's life in 1982.

The lawyers still involved in representing the eight defendants have agreed to return to court only after security promises were made, although the details of the protections that are being afforded to them have not been revealed.