Second defence lawyer in Saddam trial shot dead

The defence team, which had already threatened to boycott the next hearing on November 28 unless measures were taken to protect them, said a fair trial was impossible in current circumstances.a

In the latest attack, Adil al-Zubeidi was killed and his colleague Thamer Hamoud al-Khuzaie wounded when their car came under fire in the western Baghdad district of Hay al-Adil, police sources said. Both men were on a team defending Saddam’s half-brother Barzan al-Tikriti and former Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan.

“There can be no fair trial without providing security for witnesses, judges and lawyers on an equal footing. No trial can take place in such conditions,” Issam Ghazzawi, a spokesman for Saddam’s Jordan-based defence team said.

Richard Dicker, who is monitoring the trial for Human Rights Watch in New York said: “This second killing … heightens the concerns that we’ve had all along. It’s urgent if this trial is to go forward that effective measures are put in place to protect the defence lawyers.” —Reuters