Saddam defence lawyer shot dead

[Byrne]

From <!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/5101162.stm" target="top">news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/5101162.stm</a><!--EZCODE LINK END--><br><br><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>Saddam defence lawyer shot dead </strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--> <br><!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em> Last Updated: Wednesday, 21 June 2006, 09:35 GMT 10:35 UK</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--> <br><br>One of the main lawyers defending former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein at his trial has been shot dead. <br>Khamis al-Obeidi's body was found dumped in the capital, Baghdad, hours after he was abducted from his home. <br><br>Defence lawyers have frequently complained that they have not been given enough protection, calling the trial's fairness into question. <br><br>Two other defence lawyers were murdered last year in the early stages of the trial, which is set to end next month. <br><br>Chief defence lawyer Khalil al-Dulaimi said <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>Mr Obeidi was abducted from his home</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--> in Baghdad's southern Doura district at 0700 local time (0300 GMT) <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>by men wearing police uniforms</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END-->. <br><br>Police said Mr Obeidi's body was found near the Shia district of Sadr City. <br><br>Unlike Mr Dulaimi, who travels between Amman in Jordan and Baghdad, Mr Obeidi had chosen to continue living in the Iraqi capital despite tenuous security, Associated Press news agency reports. <br><br>Trial criticism <br><br>Mr Obeidi was in court on Monday to hear the prosecution team make its closing arguments. <br><br>The prosecutors called for Saddam Hussein and two of his seven co-defendants to be put to death for war crimes. <br><br>The trial has now adjourned and judges will consider their verdict after final defence arguments on 10 July. <br><br>The defendants deny being responsible for the deaths of 148 Shia Muslim villagers in the 1980s. <br><br>The men are accused of launching a crackdown in the village of Dujail after a failed assassination attempt on Saddam Hussein. <br><br>The trial has so far lasted eight months and has been criticised by some international legal experts. <br><br>Some said the defence had been given a disproportionately short period to present its witnesses. <br><br>On 8 November two defence lawyers were shot in their car - one died. The previous month, one of their colleagues was abducted and was later found dead. <br><!--EZCODE HR START--><hr /><!--EZCODE HR END--><br><br>It is now being reported that the murder is being blamed on "Terrorists". ?!?!?!?<br><br>Maybe the prosecution case was getting weaker/defense case stronger & some other action was required.<br><br>I see that Saddam has recently been charged with genocide over the gas attack at Halabja, in March 1988 (see <!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,7374-2118040,00.html" target="top">here</a><!--EZCODE LINK END-->). It is interesting that this charge was not included at the outset of the trial of Saddam. Maybe it is because there is some doubt as to the veracity of the claims against Saddam & the Halabja gassing(see <!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://www.uruknet.info/?p=18583" target="top">Halabja: Iraq, Saddam, Talabani, Iran, U.S. and Zyklon-B <br>An open Letter to Professor Stephen Pelletière</a><!--EZCODE LINK END-->) & <!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://www.inmotionmagazine.com/time.html" target="top">U.S. complicity in Saddam's crimes against humanity</a><!--EZCODE LINK END-->).<br><br>There is also a link to the trial of Dutchman <!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://news.google.co.uk/news?hl=en&ned=uk&q=Frans+van+Anraat+&btnG=Search+News" target="top">Frans van Anraat</a><!--EZCODE LINK END--> who has recently been sentenced to 15 years for supplying banned chemicals to Saddam Hussein's regime. Maybe now that van Anraat is out of the way, the Halabja charge against Saddam can be brought up. Who knows?<br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br> <br> <p></p><i></i>

[AlicetheCurious]

I felt sick when I read this news. One of Saddam's lawyers was recently on a private Egyptian satellite channel, possibly it was Obeidi. He said that although the US had staged a kangaroo court to railroad Saddam Hussein, the tables were about to be turned. He and the other defense lawyers were going to make it into a real trial, with real evidence, which in the end, would blow up in the Americans' face.<br><br>Amazingly convenient how 'the terrorists' nipped that plan in the bud, eh?<br><br>During the same interview, he also mentioned that the American occupation forces had repeatedly refused to provide any protection or security to the defense team.<br><br>Just because Saddam Hussein's lawyers are being systematically murdered in cold blood, the country is being ravaged by a brutal occupation and clandestine operatives mass-murdering civilians, that's no reason to grant the defense's request for a change of venue, right?<br><br>This trial is in itself a crime in progress; just because it's not acknowledged by the world's powerful interests, doesn't mean it isn't as obvious as the emperor's naked butt to anyone with half brain and half a conscience.<br> <p></p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://p216.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=alicethecurious>AlicetheCurious</A> at: 6/21/06 7:36 am<br></i>

[4911]

still, it IS starting to look more like america over there idnit <p></p><i></i>

[Byrne]

<!--EZCODE IMAGE START--><img src="http://www.cryptome.org/killmaim/killmaim-0013.jpg" style="border:0;"/><!--EZCODE IMAGE END--><br><br>Is there a more brazen example of a courtroom being 'nobbled'?<br><br>Who is going to elect to work on Sadamm's defence case now? <p></p><i></i>