Saddam Trial Lawyer Kidnapped

Co-Defendant's Lawyer Abducted By 10 Masked Gunmen

(CBS/AP)  Ten masked gunmen kidnapped the lawyer for one of Saddam Hussein's co-defendants Thursday, police said.

Saadoun Sughaiyer al-Janabi, who was in the courtroom for Wednesday's opening session of the trial, is one of two lawyers for Awad Hamed al-Bandar, one of seven Baath Party officials being tried with Saddam.

The gunmen pulled up outside al-Janabi's office in Baghdad's eastern Shaab district in the evening, broke into the building and dragged him out, said Police Maj. Falah al-Mohammedawi of the Interior Ministry.

"The trial of Saddam Hussein is taking place under the toughest circumstances, with witnesses intimidated and lawyers for both defense and prosecution threatened," said CBS News foreign affairs analyst Pamela Falk, "because the perception in Iraq is that the stakes are so high."

"The best the Iraqi police can do is attempt to protect all participants in an atmosphere that is far from secure," said Falk, "which today's kidnapping underscores."

Al-Janabi was one of 13 defense lawyers in Wednesday's session, seated at desks along the side of the courtroom. Some of the lawyers were shown in the television broadcast of the trial, but it was not immediately known if al-Janabi appeared.

Identities of the five judges and the prosecutors in Saddam's trial have been kept secret to prevent insurgent reprisals. The names of the chief judge and the top prosecutor were the only ones revealed, and only on the day of the trial, when they both appeared extensively in the broadcast.

Meanwhile, a key prosecution witness in Saddam Hussein's trial will testify at an unexpected session Sunday because the former intelligence official is seriously ill with cancer, officials said Thursday.

The witness, Wadah Ismael Al-Sheik, was a senior Iraqi intelligence officer at the time of the Dujail massacre in 1982 that Saddam and seven other co-defendants are charged with, two lawyers said. They spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid compromising the case or the heavy security surrounding it.

Saddam made a defiant initial court appearance Wednesday on the murder and torture charges, along with the seven former government and Baath Party officials, and chief prosecutor Jaafar al-Mousawi, outlined the case against the men. The three-hour session then adjourned until Nov. 28.

But in a surprise, lawyers said Al-Sheik will testify Sunday at a U.S. detention center where he is being held near Baghdad's international airport because of his cancer. If he recovers, he could be a defendant in a later case regarding another alleged massacre carried out during Saddam's rule, the lawyers said.

The session would not involve reconvening the full trial, but rather would be a hearing to take a deposition from al-Sheik, the lawyers said.

President Jalal Talabani said in an interview with the British Broadcasting Corp. the trial was a positive step for Iraq, but he insisted he would refuse to sign any death warrants that might arise from the judgment of Saddam and his associates.

The trial "means the beginning of the rule of the Iraqi people, and it means that all dictators who are committing crimes against their people will have the same fate," Talabani told the BBC.

He added that he did not think the trial would provoke the nation's Sunni Arabs, who form the backbone of Iraq's insurgency and some of whom still support Saddam. He said when people saw the crimes Saddam had committed, they would change their minds about him.

On Wednesday, a rapt Iraq watched on TV as a defiant Saddam Hussein pleaded innocent to charges of murder and torture as his long-awaited trial began Wednesday with the one-time dictator arguing about the legitimacy of the court and scuffling with guards.

CBS News correspondent Allen Pizzey reports that cafes in Baghdad were packed for an event few here dared to dream of when Saddam was in power. In the town of Dujail, the site of the massacre for which Saddam is on trial, people took to the streets carrying pictures of relatives who died, a release of years of fear and hatred.