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‘Iraqis want Saddam to run for election’
Pakistan Daily Times | December 1 2005
AMMAN: Iraqis have asked Saddam Hussein’s defence team to mull the possibility of fielding the ousted dictator as a candidate for future elections, one of his lawyers said in remarks published on Wednesday.
“Iraqis have asked the defence team to study the legal conditions to present Saddam Hussein as a candidate for elections, first as an MP then as president,” Jordan’s Al-Dustour daily quoted former Qatari justice minister Najib al-Nuaimi as saying.
“If this contradicts the legal system then president Saddam will be nominated simply as a candidate,” he said, without specifying if Saddam could try to run in the December 15 election.
Nuaimi is among three foreign lawyers along with former US attorney general Ramsey Clark and Jordanian lawyer Issam Ghazzawi who were sworn in by the Iraqi court as members of Saddam’s defence at Monday’s hearing.
Asked by AFP about Nuaimi’s reported remarks, Ghazzawi said: “As we were leaving Iraq on Tuesday ordinary Iraqis at the airport approached us saying they wished that Saddam would return (as president).”
“These Iraqis said ‘we have lost security after Saddam, how we wish he would return’,” Ghazzawi said.
Meanwhile, former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark, who has joined Saddam Hussein’s defence team, said on Tuesday he had had no time to discuss legal issues or trial strategy at his first meeting with the Iraqi ex-president.
When they met for the first time on Monday, the day Saddam’s trial in Baghdad briefly resumed, Saddam said he was “overjoyed” to meet Clark and his companions, a former Qatari justice minister and a Jordanian lawyer, Clark said.
“He was in very good spirits. He didn’t want to talk about problems but was happy to have somebody to talk to. He said a little bit about the way he was treated,” Clark said.
Clark, speaking on arrival in the Jordanian capital from Baghdad, said he expected to meet the toppled Iraqi leader again on Sunday to discuss defence strategy ahead of the next hearing on Dec 5, following a one-week adjournment.
Saddam and seven fellow defendants are on trial in a fortified courtroom in Baghdad for crimes against humanity. All have pleaded not guilty.
There was no discussion of tactics at Monday’s meeting, Clark said.
Pakistan Daily Times | December 1 2005
AMMAN: Iraqis have asked Saddam Hussein’s defence team to mull the possibility of fielding the ousted dictator as a candidate for future elections, one of his lawyers said in remarks published on Wednesday.
“Iraqis have asked the defence team to study the legal conditions to present Saddam Hussein as a candidate for elections, first as an MP then as president,” Jordan’s Al-Dustour daily quoted former Qatari justice minister Najib al-Nuaimi as saying.
“If this contradicts the legal system then president Saddam will be nominated simply as a candidate,” he said, without specifying if Saddam could try to run in the December 15 election.
Nuaimi is among three foreign lawyers along with former US attorney general Ramsey Clark and Jordanian lawyer Issam Ghazzawi who were sworn in by the Iraqi court as members of Saddam’s defence at Monday’s hearing.
Asked by AFP about Nuaimi’s reported remarks, Ghazzawi said: “As we were leaving Iraq on Tuesday ordinary Iraqis at the airport approached us saying they wished that Saddam would return (as president).”
“These Iraqis said ‘we have lost security after Saddam, how we wish he would return’,” Ghazzawi said.
Meanwhile, former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark, who has joined Saddam Hussein’s defence team, said on Tuesday he had had no time to discuss legal issues or trial strategy at his first meeting with the Iraqi ex-president.
When they met for the first time on Monday, the day Saddam’s trial in Baghdad briefly resumed, Saddam said he was “overjoyed” to meet Clark and his companions, a former Qatari justice minister and a Jordanian lawyer, Clark said.
“He was in very good spirits. He didn’t want to talk about problems but was happy to have somebody to talk to. He said a little bit about the way he was treated,” Clark said.
Clark, speaking on arrival in the Jordanian capital from Baghdad, said he expected to meet the toppled Iraqi leader again on Sunday to discuss defence strategy ahead of the next hearing on Dec 5, following a one-week adjournment.
Saddam and seven fellow defendants are on trial in a fortified courtroom in Baghdad for crimes against humanity. All have pleaded not guilty.
There was no discussion of tactics at Monday’s meeting, Clark said.
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