Saddam on hunger strike to protest lawyer's death

BAGHDAD, June 22: Saddam Hussein has gone on a hunger strike to protest the killing of one of his main lawyers, the U S military today said, and defence counsel said they were considering boycotting the trial.

A U S military spokesman for detainee operations said Saddam began the strike after eating his breakfast today morning in a U S-run prison.

He said former Saddam aides being held in the same prison had refused to eat three meals a day since yesterday evening.

''Saddam Hussein refused his midday meal today,'' he told Reuters. ''Despite their refusal to eat their meals, they are in good health and receiving appropriate medical care.'' It was not the first time Saddam, 69, has gone on a hunger strike since his trial for crimes against humanity for his role in the killing of 148 Shi'ites in Dujail began in October.

Chief lawyer Khalil al-Dulaimi, who has blamed pro-government Shi'ite militias for the killing of his deputy Khamis al-Obaidi yesterday, said defence counsel might decide to boycott the court's next session on July 10.

Defence lawyers are due to make final arguments then.

''We are deliberating on what position we will take on the trial,'' Dulaimi told Reuters in Jordan.

The killing of Obaidi, the third defence attorney to be gunned down in eight months, was a new setback to the U S- backed court, which is trying Saddam and seven others from the Sunni Arab community against a backdrop of sectarian violence.

Dulaimi said 20 gunmen wearing Interior Ministry uniforms burst into Obaidi's home after blowing up the front gate.

Obaidi, who was asleep at the time of the attack, rushed upstairs and grabbed an AK-47 automatic rifle, according to Dulaimi, who said he had spoken to Obaidi's widow.

After the attackers took his wife hostage, Obaidi handed over his weapon. He was taken away by the gunmen in civilian vehicles in front of his wife and children, Dulaimi said.

Witnesses told Reuters that gunmen dumped his body in a Baghdad Shi'ite area, but Dulaimi said Obaidi was tortured and his body hung from a lamppost.

Court officials today said they hoped to begin by August a separate trial against Saddam for genocide against the Kurds in the late 1980s. Kurds and Shi'ites were the main victims of Saddam's Sunni-dominated rule.

U S officials close to the court expect judges to issue a verdict on the Dujail case by mid-September. Saddam could face the death penalty, but an execution could be delayed by appeals and possibly up to a dozen other trials.

Reuters