Baghdad, Iraq – The lawyer for Sad dam Hussein said Tuesday he will ask a tribunal for a three-month adjournment of the former Iraqi dictator’s trial for a 1982 massacre.
Hussein and seven senior members of his 23-year regime go on trial today to face charges they ordered the killings of nearly 150 people from the mainly Shiite town of Dujayl following a failed attempt on Hussein’s life.
Khalil Dulaimi said he would ask during today’s opening session for more time to prepare Hussein’s defense and arrange for Arab and Western lawyers to join him in the defense team.
The defense also will challenge the court’s competence to try Hussein.
“We will dispute the legitimacy of the court as we’ve been doing every day. We will claim it is unconstitutional and not competent to try the legitimate president of Iraq,” Dulaimi said. “Saddam Hussein is Iraq’s legitimate president while the court is illegitimate because the U.S. invasion is illegal and everything that has been built upon it is just as illegal.”
The court is expected to grant an adjournment if the defense asks for one, court officials have said.
Dulaimi met with Hussein for 90 minutes Tuesday at a location other than the usual place of detention for the ousted Iraqi leader. Dulaimi would not elaborate.
Hussein’s location has been kept secret since his capture by American troops in December 2003, but it is believed that he has been held at a U.S. facility at Baghdad International Airport.
Hussein was in high spirits and “very optimistic” on the eve of the start of his trial, Dulaimi said.
“I have just left him five minutes ago. His morale is very, very, very high and he is very optimistic and confident of his innocence, although the court is … unjust,” Dulaimi said.
If convicted, Hussein and his co-defendants could face the death penalty, but they could appeal before another chamber of the special tribunal set up to try the former leader and officials from his ousted regime.
Court officials have said they are trying Hussein on the Dujayl massacre first because it was the easiest and quickest case to put together. Other cases they are investigating include a crackdown on the Kurds that killed an estimated 180,000 people.
