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Lawyers for Saddam Hussein on Sunday urged world humanitarian bodies
to intervene 'immediately' to investigate the former Iraqi president's deterioration
in health after he was reportedly admitted to hospital.
'We hereby urge the world's humanitarian organizations, including the United
Nations, to intervene immediately and conduct an investigation into the reasons
behind the deterioration in the president's health,' member of the legal team
Ziyad Najdawi told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.
'We hold the US troops completely responsible for any developments in this
respect,' he said.
Najdawi was responding to a statement Sunday by Jaafar al- Moussawi, chief
prosecutor in the trial of Saddam, that the former dictator had been admitted
to hospital.
'The defence team looks with suspicion to Moussawi's statement, because
three defence lawyers met with the president on Saturday and found him in good
health and high morale,' Najdawi said.
The three members were former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark, head of the
defence panel Khalil Duleimi and the Egyptian lawyer Mohammad Munib, he added.
He admitted that Saddam and several members of the former Iraqi leadership
had been on hunger strike for the past two weeks to protest the court's failure
to respond to the demands of the defence team.
'The president did not take any meal since July 8,' he said.
The trial of Saddam and seven co-defendants on charges of killing 148 Iraqi
Shiites in the village of Dujail in 1982 was scheduled to resume on Monday.
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Saddam in hospital after hunger strike
By Ahmed Rasheed
Reuters
 |
Children peek behind window grills next to the defaced painting of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein on the wall of the post office building in Baghdad, July 11, 2006. (Namir Noor-Eldeen/Reuters)
|
Saddam Hussein was being fed through a tube on Sunday after 16 days on hunger
strike and an Iraqi official said he will not attend court on Monday.
"To avoid a deterioration in his health he was taken to hospital for medical
attention and food was given to him through his mouth," chief prosecutor
Jaafar al-Moussawi told Reuters. "He will not be able to attend the session
tomorrow."
A U.S. military spokesman said Saddam was not in critical condition.
"Saddam Hussein continues to maintain his hunger strike and is voluntarily
receiving nutrition through a feeding tube. His condition is constantly monitored
by medical personnel and is not life-threatening," he said.
Saddam lawyers accuse the U.S. military of force-feeding the ousted leader,
whose hunger strike has added to the chaos of his trial, which is approaching
its conclusion.
The U.S. military says the 69-year-old ex-president has been drinking sweet
coffee and liquid nourishment and receiving psychological counseling to try
to persuade him to eat.
Saddam and his co-accused are on trial for the killing of 148 Shi'ite men and
teenagers after an attempt on his life in the town of Dujail in 1982.
He is also awaiting trial in August for genocide against the Kurds in the late
1980s under the so-called Anfal campaign.
The Dujail trial, which U.S. and Iraqi officials had hoped would project a
new image of democracy in postwar Iraq, has been marred by the killing of three
defense lawyers.
Saddam and his half-brother and former intelligence chief Barzan al-Tikriti
have often launched tirades in the chamber in a trial which saw the resignation
of the first chief judge in protest over what he called government interference.
Saddam's chief defense lawyer accused U.S. military authorities of force feeding
the toppled president to make him end the hunger strike.
"The U.S. military are force-feeding the president to break his will and
end his hunger strike to protest against the trial and its illegality,"
Khalil Dulaimi told Reuters in Amman.
Dulaimi said he had held a three-hour meeting with Saddam on Saturday to confer
on defense tactics in which a decision was taken to boycott Monday's session.
He said he had found Saddam in good health, despite a weight loss of several
kilograms.
"They have clearly exhausted all means at their disposal to convince him
to end the strike and now they are resorting to force ... this is a gross violation
of his rights."
Saddam, who was absent as the U.S. backed court heard final arguments in defense
of two minor co-accused, said he had boycotted the session to protest against
a decision to convict him through unlawful proceedings.
Dulaimi said the defense team would boycott Monday's session in protest at
the court's refusal to meet their demands for a fair trial.
"After all our legal demands that represent the minimum for a fair trial
have been refused, the defense team decided to continue its complete suspension
of its attendance of the trial sessions," he said.
(Additional reporting by Sulaiman al-Khalidi in
Amman)
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