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CORRECTED: Defense lawyer in Saddam trial abducted in Baghdad

Posted on: Thursday, 20 October 2005, 16:40 CDT

(Please read in paragraph 5 ...and forced Janabi... instead of ...and forced Bander... .)

By Michael Georgy and Mariam Karouny

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A lawyer for one of Saddam Hussein's co-defendants was kidnapped from his home on Thursday, a day after he sat in the dock next to the former president on the opening day of their trial for crimes against humanity.

His client is former judge Jawad al-Bander, a senior legal source involved in the trial told Reuters.

"Saadoun Janabi was kidnapped this evening around 8.30 p.m. (1730 GMT) from his office, which is also his home, in the Shaab district by eight armed men," the source said.

Police and Interior Ministry sources confirmed the kidnapping. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Eight men arrived in two cars and forced Janabi from his upper-storey office at gunpoint, the police sources said.

Bander is a former top judge under Saddam who is charged, along with Saddam and six others, over the killings and executions of Shi'ite men from the village of Dujail after Saddam escaped an assassination attempt there in 1982.

As Janabi was being taken, Irish journalist Rory Carroll was freed, a day after he was seized while reporting on a Baghdad Shi'ite family watching the televised start of Saddam's trial.

"I don't know who took me," Carroll told Reuters. "I'm fine. I was treated reasonably well," he said, adding he wanted to go on reporting on Iraq, though his immediate plans were unclear.

"I spent the last 36 hours in the dark," he said.

Iraq's powerful Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Chalabi was present when he was released, Carroll added.

Saddam and seven others went on trial on Wednesday on charges of crimes against humanity connected to the killing of 148 Shi'ites from the village of Dujail in the 1980s.

The defendants won a 40-day adjournment to November 28 to hone their defense after they all pleaded not guilty on Wednesday.

SECURITY COMPLAINTS

Defense lawyers want to bring in leading foreign attorneys to help them in a trial that has gripped Iraq and the world.

It was not clear whether the kidnapping would affect that or lead to further calls for adjournment.

It may add to complaints that Iraq's appalling security, with a low intensity civil war raging between Saddam's once dominant Sunni Arab minority and the Shi'ite-led, U.S.-backed government, is a poor environment in which to hold a fair trial.

Kidnapping for political motives or money is rampant; Sunni insurgents and Shi'ite militias are both accused of killings.

Bander, in a plain white traditional robe, sat at Saddam's right hand in court on Wednesday, demanding and donning a checkered Arab headscarf as proceedings got under way.

He is accused for overseeing the trials of dozens of Dujail men who were sentenced to death in the wake of the incident. His defense is expected to argue he was simply upholding the law.

In three hours of televised courtroom exchanges, the ousted Iraqi president harangued the Kurdish judge and tussled with his guards. Thursday's newspapers were filled with coverage. "The people are victorious over a tyrant," read one banner headline.

The judge, who has risked revenge attacks by appearing on television to try Saddam, said the court also needed time to persuade witnesses who were "scared" to testify.

One who will definitely give evidence shortly is a former intelligence officer in Dujail who is dying of cancer. The presiding judge, Rizgar Amin, told Reuters he would soon testify in hospital in case he died or was too ill to appear in court.

"Wadah al-Sheikh is one of the main witnesses; we are going to get his testimony, maybe next week," the judge said. "He is in hospital and very sick with cancer so we have to go to him."

Iraqi security forces have arrested a nephew of Saddam on suspicion of financing insurgents, National Security Adviser Mowaffaq al-Rubaie said on Thursday. Yasser Sabawi was captured in Saddam's hometown of Tikrit on Wednesday as residents protested to mark the beginning of Saddam's trial.

ARAB LEAGUE

Earlier on Thursday, Arab League chief Amr Moussa, who has said Iraq is on the verge of civil war, met Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari and other Iraqi leaders.

"We spoke about the new Iraq and the specific mission of the head of the Arab League ... in the framework of a national dialogue and national Iraqi reconciliation," Moussa said. "We are working so this will be the basis for Iraq's future."

For security reasons, the 22-member league had not announced the timing of the secretary-general's visit, his first to Iraq since a U.S.-led invasion toppled Saddam in 2003.

Iraqi and U.S. officials hope the high-profile Saddam trial will help Iraqis bury their past and ease the insurgency.

An October 15 referendum on a constitution backed by Iraq's new Shi'ite and Kurdish leaders and opposed by Sunnis is expected to pass, raising fears of an intensified campaign by the rebels.

The Electoral Commission, which says it may issue results in a day or two, said it had received about 80 complaints, most of them relatively minor; some Sunni leaders have alleged fraud.

Shi'ite political leader Abdul Aziz al-Hakim criticised the Arab League during a news conference with Moussa.

"We reproach the Arab League and Arab states because of their position toward Iraq and Iraqis," he said. "There was some clear position from the Arab League to the suffering of Iraqi people, but it did not condemn terrorist groups."

Arab states such as conservative Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia have complained that non-Arab Shi'ite Iran is gaining influence in Iraq to the detriment of regional stability.

(Additional reporting by Ibon Villelabeitia and Alastair Macdonald in Baghdad, Faris Mehdawi in Baquba, Aref Mohammed in Kirkuk and Khaled Yacoub Oweis)

Source: REUTERS

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