World

Security Concerns For Saddam Trial

November 9, 2005 / 10:49 AM EST / CBS/AP

Three masked gunmen in a speeding Opel assassinated a second lawyer in the Saddam Hussein trial Tuesday, casting doubt on Iraq's ability to try the case and leading a prominent war crimes prosecutor to urge moving the proceedings to another Arab country.

Adel al-Zubeidi, lawyer for former Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan, died when bullets were sprayed his car in a largely Sunni Arab neighborhood of western Baghdad. The shots also wounded Thamir al-Khuzaie, attorney for another co-defendant, Saddam's half brother Barazan Ibrahim.

The brazen daylight attack on a major avenue came three weeks after the kidnap-slaying of another defense lawyer, Saadoun al-Janabi. His body was found Oct. 20, one day after the trial's opening session, where he represented Awad al-Bandar, a former official in Saddam's Baath Party.

No group has claimed responsibility for the killings.

The White House says today's deadly attack on a lawyer involved in the trial of Saddam Hussein shows the importance of security as the trials take place.

Press Secretary Scott McClellan says a secure environment needs to be in place for the trials to proceed and for witnesses to participate in a safe way.

Saddam's main lawyer, Khalil al-Dulaimi, blamed the government for Tuesday's attack. "The aim of these organized attacks is to scare Arab and foreign lawyers," al-Dulaimi said. "We call upon the international community, on top of them the Secretary-General of the United Nations, to send an investigative committee because the situation is unbearable."

CBS News correspondent Cami McCormick reports that al-Dulaimi insists both lawyers were killed by gunmen posing as Iraqi security forces.

Laith Kubba, spokesman for Shiite Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, suggested pro-Saddam insurgents were responsible, saying "we know that Saddam and his followers are ready to do anything when it serves their interest and to block the work of the court."

In related developments:

U.S. and Iraqi forces secured the town of Husaybah after four days of fighting along the Syrian border and neutralized al Qaeda-led insurgents there, the Marine commander said Tuesday. "The city of Husaybah has been cleared and is secure at this time," Col. Stephen W. Davis said. About 2,500 U.S. troops and 1,000 Iraqi soldiers on Saturday began the assault on Husaybah, described as a major entry point for foreign fighters coming from Syria bound for Baghdad and other Iraqi cities.

The U.S.-led multinational force in Iraq has been given permission to remain in the country for another year. The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously today to extend the mandate of the force past its previous December 31st deadline. The Security Council had defined that date as the end point of Iraq's political process. It's about two weeks after parliamentary elections there. The resolution was adopted in response to a request for the troops to remain from Iraq's prime minister. U.S. officials say the vote shows an international commitment to Iraq's political transition. "The Security Council has few options but to extend the mandate since Iraq requested the extension," said CBS News foreign affairs analyst Pamela Falk from the U.N., "but the unanimous vote was more of a statement, particularly by France and Russia, that at least for one more year, the multinational force is supported by the international community."

Ahmad Chalabi, Iraq's deputy prime minister, will meet with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Wednesday in a visit that would have been unimaginable two years ago. "He is an official and a representative of the government of Iraq," State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said in explaining Rice's decision to meet with the Shiite leader.

Police found six handcuffed corpses in a water treatment plant.

One civilian was killed when gunmen opened fire in the notorious Dora district in the south of the capital.

A car bomb exploded near Mustansiriyah University, killing one person and injuring another.

Two Islamic terrorist cells were competing to become the first to stage a major bombing in Australia, a prosecutor said Tuesday after police arrested 17 suspects in a series of coordinated pre-dawn raids in two cities. About 500 police arrested nine men in the southern city of Melbourne and eight in Sydney, including one man critically injured in a gunfight with police.

Kubba brushed aside suggestions that the trial be moved out of Iraq and insisted the second session would proceed as planned Nov. 28. Deputy State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said the United States would support Iraq as it prepares to move forward" in the trial.

But Saddam's chief lawyer claimed the Tuesday assassination was carried out by "an armed group using government vehicles." He renewed calls for moving the trial to a neutral country.

"The aim of these organized attacks is to scare Arab and foreign lawyers," al-Dulaimi told Al-Jazeera television. "We call upon the international community, especially the secretary-general of the United Nations, to send an investigative committee because the situation is unbearable."

Saddam and his seven co-defendants went on trial Oct. 19 in a special court in the heavily guarded Green Zone in connection with the 1982 deaths of 148 Shiite Muslims in Dujail following an assassination attempt against the Iraqi leader in the town north of Baghdad.

Trial judge Rizgar Mohammed Amin postponed the proceedings until Nov. 28 to allow the defense time to prepare its case.

After al-Janabi's assassination, defense lawyers announced they would not cooperate with the court and would refuse to appear at the next session until they were satisfied with security measures. Kubba said defense lawyers had twice turned down invitations to move into the where they could be protected by U.S. and other international troops.

In statement, U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Elizabeth Colton said the United States "considers defense counsel a vital part of the judicial process" and "the U.S. and the Iraqi High Tribunal place a high priority on the security of all parties to include judges, prosecutors and defense counsel."

"All parties have been offered various security measures and some have accepted," she added.

Nevertheless, the slaying of a second defense attorney — regardless of who was responsible — reinforced doubts among human rights groups and international lawyers about whether such a trial could proceed in a country gripped by a raging insurgency — much of it led by the defendants' supporters.

"I don't understand how you can have a fair trial in this atmosphere of insecurity, with bombs going off," said Richard Goldstone, the first prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and one of the world's most prominent jurists.

Richard Dicker, an expert in international law at the New York-based Human Rights Watch, agreed that a fair trial was impossible "if effective measures are not implemented to provide security for defense attorney who are clearly at risk."

However, both the Iraqi government and the United States have long insisted that the trial be held in Iraq before an Iraqi court so that Saddam could answer for his alleged crimes committed against his own people.

"In Iraq's fragile political climate, the legitimacy of the court will be in question," Human Rights Watch said in a report last month.

The trial began during a time of rising tensions between majority Shiite Muslims, a community oppressed under Saddam, and minority Sunni Arabs, who enjoyed a privileged position during his rule.

Shiites and Kurds dominate the government security services, and Sunni Arabs form most of the insurgency. Some Sunnis consider the trial as little more than a bid by Shiites and Kurds to exact vengeance for actions that Saddam considered necessary against communities that supported Iran in the 1980-1988 war with Iraq.