Defence lawyers accuse Iraqi government of meddling ousted leader’s case, say whole matter is media hype.

BAGHDAD. September 5, 2005 - Saddam Hussein's lawyers on Monday accused the Iraqi government of meddling in the deposed leader's case as foes said his trial next month over a 1982 massacre will not be enough to heal the nation's wounds.

"It is all politics. It has nothing to do with the law," Jordanian lawyer Issam Ghazzawi, spokesman for the Amman-based defence team, said after government spokesman Leith Kubba announced the October 19 trial date.

"The announcement about the trial date is illegal because it was made by the official government spokesman and not by the court. Leith Kubba is not a spokesman for the court," Ghazzawi said.

Kubba said Sunday that Saddam and seven of his former henchmen would go on trial over the 1982 massacre of more than 140 Shiite villagers in Dujail, northeast of Baghdad, after a failed assassination bid there.

The trial, after which Saddam could face the death penalty, is starting just four days after a referendum on Iraq's draft constitution is due to be held, a document that has caused deep divisions between the ousted Sunni elite and majority Shiites.

Saddam is currently in US custody after being captured in December 2003, following his ouster in April of that year by US-led invasion forces.

Others complained that the charges, while potentially enough to judge and execute Saddam, do not go far enough in assuaging feelings of injustice for the former regime's other alleged crimes.

"The tribunal should also judge the other dossiers to establish the truth of this tragic period," of more than 30 years of Saddam's iron-fisted rule, Kurdish former human rights minister Bakthiar Amin said.

The Iraqi Special Tribunal charged with trying Saddam is continuing to investigate his other alleged crimes against the country's Kurdish and Shiite minorities, amassing thousands of documents for possible future cases.

The 68-year-old is expected to face separate trials at a later date on further counts of crimes against humanity, particularly over the gassing of Kurds and the mass killings of Shiites in the south of the country.

However, Kubba said that if found guilty and sentenced to death after the initial trial, the punishment could be carried out without waiting for any further trials.

Abdel Haq Alani, a London-based British lawyer and advisor to Saddam's defence team, meanwhile slammed the announcement of the trial as "politically loaded."

"Why would the government fix a date for the trial? The court should do that," he said. "When politicians meddle in the judicial process there are questions to be answered: is the judiciary independent? Do they make their own decisions?"

He also complained that Saddam's Iraqi lawyer Khalil Dulaimi had yet to receive any formal charges against his client from the IST.

"The whole matter is a media hype. We are told that this man is being charged with this and that but as far as I can tell Mr Dulaimi has not yet received a single document of indictment, so how can he prepare a defence," Alani said.

"How can the defence prepare when they have nothing to go on?"

Jordanian lawyer Ziad Najdawi, who is also a member of the defence team, accused the Iraqi authorities of trying to distract the war-wary Iraqi people.

"The whole thing is a farce. The so-called trial date is meant to cover up for their (Iraqi authorities') failure and inability to provide the Iraqi people basic needs. It's only a distraction," Najdawi said.

"The government is impatient to bring Saddam Hussein to trial to score points during elections" set for December 15, said Sunni leader Saleh al-Motlak.

He said that many Iraqis have no faith in the IST and that he would prefer an international court to try the ex-leader.

"We want a fair trial but we think that justice cannot come from an Iraqi court and that could lead to more violence," he said.