Defense lawyer in Saddam trial abducted

By Michael Georgy and Mariam Karouny

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

Saadoun Janabi is defense counsel for former judge Awad
al-Bander, a senior legal source involved in the trial said.

“(He) was kidnapped this evening around 8:30 p.m. 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 the ousted leader 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.

A British government source said he believed Carroll was
released after two Iraqi prisoners were freed in southern Iraq.

“I don’t know who took me,” Carroll told Reuters. “I’m
fine. I was treated reasonably well,” he said. “I spent the
last 36 hours in the dark.”

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

Earlier, angry Iraqi journalists mourned the secretary of
their union, Mohammed Haroon, killed by unknown gunmen the day
before; the Iraq conflict is among the most dangerous ever for
media employees, with more than 70 killed since 2003.

SECURITY COMPLAINTS

Saddam and the seven others went on trial on Wednesday but
swiftly won an adjournment to November 28 to hone their defense
after they pleaded not guilty; they all face the death penalty.

Defense lawyers want to bring in leading foreign attorneys
to help them in a trial that has gripped Iraq and the world.
Iraq’s government and its U.S. sponsors say the process will be
fair, helping Iraqis put their troubled past behind them and
demonstrating that its new democracy can work.

It was not clear if the kidnapping would deter foreign
lawyers from coming or lead to further calls for adjournment.

It may add to complaints that confrontation verging on
civil war between Saddam’s once dominant Sunni Arab minority
and the Shi’ite-led government is not compatible with 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, loudly demanding and then
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, told Reuters 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 said on Thursday they arrested one of
Saddam’s nephews on suspicion of financing insurgents. 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.

Iraq’s Shi’ite leaders have been at odds with the Sunni
governments of the rest of the Arab world, prompting fears that
conflict within Iraq could spread across the region.

Shi’ite political leader Abdul Aziz al-Hakim criticized 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, complaining
that the 22-member League “did not condemn terrorist groups.”

Other Arab leaders are wary of Baghdad’s close ties to
Washington and to non-Arab fellow Shi’ites in Iran.

An October 15 referendum on a constitution opposed by
Sunnis as a recipe for division was expected to pass, raising
fears of an intensified campaign by the rebels once results are
announced.

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.

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