Executing Saddam Hussein would fuel more sectarian violence in Iraq, a US
lawyer for the deposed Iraqi leader said on Tuesday.
"That execution would inflame a country that's already incinerating," former
US Attorney General Ramsey Clark said. "I hope the American people can realize
that if there is ever a time to call for an end to executions, it is in this
case."
Saddam's trial for crimes against humanity has been a miscarriage of justice,
depriving a death sentence of legitimacy, Clark said. He added that the trial
has been unduly influenced by the United States, which has attracted
international criticism for its own high rate of executions.
Clark, a veteran defender of unpopular high-profile cases, spoke at a news
conference to highlight his call for better protection of Saddam's lawyers,
three of whom have been killed since the Iraqi trial started in October. The
third was killed on Wednesday.
Prosecutors have demanded the death penalty for Saddam in the case, which
involves a 1982 crackdown on Shi'ites in which hundreds were killed and
tortured.
Shi'ites and Kurds, who suffered most under Saddam's Sunni Arab-led
government, have dominated the government since the 2003 U.S. invasion and lead
the new government of national unity.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, a Shi'ite, recently presented a national
reconciliation plan aimed at defusing a Sunni insurgency and halting sectarian
violence which has seen deaths of 30-50 people a day in Baghdad alone.
Saddam's defense lawyers are due to give their summation on July 10, but have
threatened a boycott without improved security. Clark said he expected the
demand would be met and he anticipated being present for the summation.
Saddam's lawyers have bitterly complained that they have been unable to
interview witnesses or investigate the case.
"This trial can never be perceived as fair," Clark said.
On Tuesday a prosecutor said a separate trial is to begin in August in which
Saddam would face genocide charges in the killings of tens of thousands of
Iraqs' Kurds in 1988 in a military operation to force them from their villages.
To avoid "a mere show trial," Clark said, the defense team must receive
enough money, time and security to visit the region and prepare.
The defense is considered likely to highlight how Kurdish guerrillas attacked
Iraqi forces during the 1980-1988 Iraq-Iran war. Clark also said defense lawyers
would examine extensive U.S. intelligence on the 1988
campaign.
