Saddam's lawyers 'don't recognise trial date'
Saddam Hussein’s lawyers won’t recognise the October 19 start of the former Iraqi leader’s trial because they claim they have not been notified of the date by the tribunal trying him, the attorneys said today.
The lawyers “will not recognise any date for the trial if it comes within weeks or months,” said Khalil Dulaimi, Saddam’s Iraqi lawyer, in a written statement issued from Baghdad.
Dulaimi did not specify what the defence lawyers will do if no notification has been served by the time the trial opens.
Another Saddam lawyer, Britain-based Abdel Haq Alani, said the legal team “must be served notice stating a trial date and that hasn’t happened.”
Saddam and seven other members of his toppled regime are due to stand trial in the Iraq Special Tribunal on October 19.
They are charged with ordering a massacre of 143 people in Dujail, a town north of Baghdad, in 1982 after a failed assassination attempt against the ousted leader.
If convicted, Saddam could be sentenced to death.
