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The
attackers killed Adel al-Zubeidi, who was
representing former Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin
Ramadan, and lightly injured Thamir al-Khuzaie, the
attorney for Saddam's half-brother, co-defendant
Barzan Ibrahim al-Hassan al-Tikriti.
All the defense lawyers had spurned offers of
official protection by the Iraqi Interior Ministry.
Nor were they willing to move into the highly
fortified green zone, which houses government
offices, the U.S. Embassy and the trial venue.
Saddam's main attorney, Khalil al-Dulaimi, told Al
Jazeera television that the shooting was carried out
by "an armed group using government vehicles."
"The aim of these organized attacks is to terrify
Arab and foreign lawyers," Mr. al-Dulaimi said. "We
call upon the international community, on top of
them the secretary-general of the United Nations, to
send an investigative committee because the
situation is unbearable."
He called for the trial to be moved to a neutral
country, a request the Iraqi government previously
had rejected.
The remaining lawyers last night reiterated a demand
they had made after defense lawyer Sadoon al-Janabi
was slain Oct. 20, refusing to appear in court
unless the killers were apprehended.
The lawyers contend that a death squad exists, run
by Shi'ites and likely operating from the Shi'ite-dominated
Interior Ministry.
Their suspicions were heightened yesterday by the
fact that the lawyers were picked off, even though
they apparently had been changing cars and taking
different routes each day.
If the defense lawyers do not turn up Nov. 28,
Presiding Judge Rizgar Mohammed Amin plans to
install "backup lawyers" appointed by the court,
legal sources told The Washington Times.
Other sources said the court could issue an order
for the lawyers to appear or risk substantial fine
or being barred from appearing in any other cases in
other courts.
The sources said the five trial judges might also
agree to allow Saddam to represent himself --
something he had indicated that he would prefer to
do when he was interrogated by an investigative
judge in pretrial hearings.
The latter option is understood to be strongly
discouraged by the American advisory team, drawn
from the State and Justice departments, working
discreetly from within the U.S. Embassy, which is
housed in one of Saddam's former palaces. .
www.washingtontimes.com
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