VIDEO OF SADDAM’S TRIAL UPDATE HERE
The lawyers say they have none of the estimated eight million documents relating to the case, and have not been formally told of the charges.
Saddam Hussein has been allowed two meetings with his lawyers since his capture in December 2003.
The complaints from his Jordan-based lawyers cast serious doubts on the claim that his trial could begin on schedule, says the BBC’s John Leyne in Amman.
So… my question is,… Which of esteemed members from this highly respected legal team is making the complaint?
Is it the honorable Former Attorney General Ramsey Clark?
The fiercely anti-war (Anti-American) Clark has met with Saddam several times over the past 15 years and was considered a friend of Saddam’s Iraq when it was hit by sanctions in 1990 for invading Kuwait.
…An embittered casualty of the ’60s, and Attorney General for the LBJ administration, Clark assumed a leftist posture after leaving the Justice Department. He became the lawyer for anti-war protestor Philip Berrigan, headed a private probe into the FBI killings of Black Panthers Fred Hampton and Mark Clark, and travelled to Vietnam to condemn the bombing.
In June 1980, with America mesmerized by the Iran hostage crisis, he joined a forum on “Crimes of America” in Tehran–the first of many such junkets. The ’80s saw him globetrotting to schmooze with any dictator who happened to be on the White House shit-list…
Or maybe, Tom Hughes, a solicitor from Tiverton, in Devon, England, (a surprise entry)…
“The married father-of-three was approached… to join the team ‘to review principles of international justice surrounding the forthcoming trial’. Information on Mr Hughes from the Law Society shows not a specialist in international law but a typical country solicitor: areas of expertise include crime (including motor offences); family law; general litigation; debt and money advice; employment; and neighbour disputes.
Maybe it was the secretive, Emmanuel Ludot…
little is known outside his own country, except a for his penchant for controversial cases. In the past he represented a cancer sufferer suing over the Chernobyl disaster. In case you were wondering the suit wasn’t against the Soviet Union but the French government for allowing people to consume food possibly contaminated by the radioactive fallout over France. According to one recent report, “Mr Ludot… called the Iraqi penal code ‘Stone Age legislation’ and said it was ill-suited to Saddam’s case.” One would have thought it was very well suited.
Could it be, Jacques Verges?…
Another French member of the team, Jacques Verges, famous – or notorious – as defender of Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie and international terrorist Carlos the Jackal. Charmingly, he “is said to have been a friend of Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge leader behind Cambodia’s genocide.”
How about British-based, Giovanni di Stefano?…
Another team member is British-based Giovanni di Stefano, multi-millionaire and former controversial director of Dundee football club. And a lawyer, apparently. Di Stefano has in the past rubbed shoulders with some interesting characters. He had this to say about the late Serbian ethnic cleansing mass murderer Arkan: “He loved me very much as a human being. And I liked him as a person. He had good morals. He was a good person. And I’m not ashamed of saying it.” He also claims to have met Osama bin Laden in Baghdad in 1998 (!): “He had a handshake like a woman. He had a soft voice. He spoke like a priest.”
Or, the acedemician, Marc Henzelin…
Swiss barrister and academic Marc Henzelin has represented Iraqi-based Iranian mudjahedin, Argentinian arms dealers, and Saddam’s nephews and nieces whose Swiss bank accounts were frozen by the authorities.
It just might be, the “Palestinian legal advisor”, Curtis Doebbler…
Then there is American academic (Professor of Human Rights Law at American University in Cairo) and lawyer Curtis Doebbler. Doebbler is a former legal advisor to the Palestinian Authority, and has been representing suspected terrorists held at Guantanamo Bay (or as this note delightfully puts it, he “served as an advisor to the Taliban on the laws of war”).
Or, lastly, maybe it is the fine young woman from Libya, Aysha Qaddafi…
Lastly, Saddam’s defense team even gets Aysha Qaddafi, a daughter of Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi joined a 20-member defense panel for former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, the team’s chief Mohammad Rashdan announced yesterday (in July of 2004).
Ghazzawi said Gaddafi became the 21st member of the defence team, which also includes European and American lawyers appointed by Saddam’s wife and three daughters.
In addition, around “1,500 volunteers, 400 American professors and 200 consultants from different countries, including France and Latin American nations” back the defence team, Ghazzawi said.
The lawyers also allege Saddam has been tortured.
“He has many wounds on his body,” said Ghazzawi. “After 1.5 months of his capture, he has wounds that show that he was treated ill or tortured.”
Whoever it is that is now complaining, let’s make sure that this former dictator gets the proper help that he deserves. And, please, please no more shots of the dear man in his briefs! We wouldn’t want to upset Amnesty International more than we already have.
