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8 arrested in plot to kill Hussein judge
Associated Press
Published November 28, 2005
BAGHDAD - Iraqi police arrested eight Sunni Arabs for allegedly plotting to kill the judge who prepared the indictment of Saddam Hussein, authorities said Sunday, the day before the ousted leader's trial for crimes against humanity resumes.
Former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark arrived in Baghdad to help the defense but might not be allowed in court today.
Tight security surrounds the proceedings, which are restarting after a five-week recess in a specially built courtroom in the heavily guarded Green Zone.
The eight alleged plotters from Iraq's Sunni Arab minority were apprehended Saturday in the northern city of Kirkuk, police Col. Anwar Qadir said. He said they were carrying written instructions from a former top Hussein deputy, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, ordering them to kill investigating judge Raed Juhi, who prepared the case against Hussein and forwarded it to the trial court in July.
Hussein and seven others are charged in the killing of more than 140 Shiite Muslims after an assassination attempt against Hussein in the Shiite town of Dujail in 1982. Convictions could bring a sentence of death by hanging.
Insecurity from the predominantly Sunni insurgency has complicated efforts to put Hussein on trial. Names of four of the five trial judges have been kept secret and some of the 35 witnesses may testify behind curtains to protect them from reprisal.
Clark and former Qatari Justice Minister Najib al-Nueimi flew to the capital from Amman, Jordan, to lend weight to the defense team. Both have been advising Hussein's lawyers. However, neither Clark nor Nueimi has been officially recognized by the court as legal counsel. U.S. and Iraqi officials said Hussein's chief lawyer, Khalil al-Dulaimi, did not officially request permission for any foreign attorneys to attend the trial.
Clark, who served as attorney general under President Johnson, wrote last month that Hussein's rights had been systematically violated since his December 2003 capture, including his right "to a lawyer of his own choosing."
Ex-prime minister decries abuses
BAGHDAD - Iraq's former interim prime minister complained Sunday that human rights abuses by some in the new government are as bad now as they were under Saddam Hussein.
Ayad Allawi, a secular Shiite Muslim, told the London newspaper The Observer that fellow Shiites are responsible for death squads and secret torture centers and said brutality by elements of Iraqi security forces rivals that of Hussein's secret police. "People are remembering the days of Saddam. These were the precise reasons that we fought Saddam and now we are seeing the same thing," the newspaper quoted Allawi as saying.
Allawi's allegation of widespread human rights abuses follows the discovery this month of up to 173 detainees, some malnourished and showing signs of torture, in a Shiite-led Interior Ministry building in Baghdad.
Congressmen injured in accident
A military vehicle carrying U.S. politicians overturned on the way to the Baghdad airport Saturday, injuring two congressmen, a fellow congressman traveling with them said.
Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Pa., was airlifted to a military hospital in Germany for an MRI on his neck, and Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo., was sent to a Baghdad hospital, said U.S. Rep. Jim Marshall, a Georgia Democrat, who was in the vehicle but was not hurt.
MARINE KILLED: The U.S. military reported that a Marine assigned to the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing was killed Saturday when his vehicle struck a roadside bomb near Camp Taqaddum, 45 miles west of Baghdad.
[Last modified November 28, 2005, 01:05:08]
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