Saddam’s trial today
US war critic joins Saddam’s defence team
Foreign Desk Report

BAGHDAD (Iraq)—Iraqi police arrested eight Sunni Arabs in the northern city of Kirkuk for allegedly plotting to assassinate the investigating judge who prepared the case against Saddam Hussein, a senior police commander said Sunday. The announcement came as former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark arrived in Baghdad, airport officials said, apparently to aid in Saddam’s defense. Clark has been advising nearly a dozen international lawyers on Saddam’s defense team. He has contended that Saddam’s rights have been violated in the legal process following his capture. But a US government official close to the court said the defense team had not filed the proper paperwork to have a non-Iraqi lawyer in the courtroom.
The men who were arrested for plotting to kill the judge were carrying a document from former top Saddam deputy Izzat al-Douri ordering them to kill Raed Juhi, said Col. Anwar Qadir, a police commander in Kirkuk, where the men were arrested Saturday. Al-Douri is the highest ranking member of the Saddam regime still at large and is believed to be at least the symbolic leader of Saddam loyalists still fighting US forces and the new government in Iraq.
The arrest came two days before Saddam’s trial resumes after a five-week break. The first prosecution witnesses are expected to testify before the five-judge panel, offering accounts of the deaths of more than 140 Shiite villagers following an assassination attempt against Saddam in the town of Dujail in 1982.
If convicted, Saddam and his seven co-defendants could be sentenced to death by hanging. Security concerns prompted the defense team to threaten a boycott of Monday’s session after two members were slain in separate attacks after the trial opened Oct. 19. The US official, who requested anonymity in return for providing the information, also said no request by a member of the defense team for security has been denied.
Attorneys for each defendant agreed to appear Monday, and the trial is expected to proceed as scheduled, the official added. The chief trial judge said in remarks released Sunday in Germany that he has considered whether the court should move to Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq because of poor security in the capital.