Saddam and defence team boycott trial

[cal04]

Saddam Hussein and four co-accused refused to attend their trial on Wednesday, along with their defence team, who said they would not return to court until the chief judge they accuse of bias resigns. Chief judge Raouf Abdel Rahman said he would proceed without them and court-appointed lawyers replaced Saddam's team.

The boycott by Saddam, his former aides and the defence team threw the trial into further confusion.
Speaking earlier to Reuters in the Jordanian capital Amman, Saddam's chief lawyer Khalil al-Dulaimi accused Abdel Rahman, a member of the Kurdish community long oppressed by Saddam, of showing bias and rushing to hand down a sentence.

"We cannot attend any trial session unless the chief judge resigns, because he holds a personal grudge against my client," he said. Abdel Rahman, who has infuriated Saddam and his defence team with his no-nonsense style, is trying to take control of a trial been marred by delays since getting under way last October. Two members of the defence team have been murdered, chief judge Rizgar Amin resigned complaining of political interference, and his original replacement was shifted aside after being accused of belonging to Saddam's Baath party.

Abdel Rahman, who stares out Saddam and yells back at him, has made it clear he will not tolerate the former leader's outbursts. The trial has turned into a test of wills since he began presiding over proceedings on Sunday. "After what happened ... the defence team was confronted with only one choice -- the boycott of a court that has no legitimacy, (is) unconstitutional and has already taken a prior decision to convict the president," Dulaimi said.

http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=143&sid=6430608&cKey=1138794621000

[thecrow]

1. This belongs in the Hague.for just this reason.