Defence complains as clock ticks on Saddam appeal

BAGHDAD, Nov 16 (Reuters) The clock is ticking on Saddam Hussein's appeal to escape the hangman's noose, but 10 days after sentencing him to death, an Iraqi court has yet to make public its reasons for finding him guilty.

Saddam's defence team complained yesterday that despite ''repeated requests'' it had not received a copy of the verdict so that it could begin work on an appeal and lodge it with the court within the 30-day deadline after the November 5 verdict.

Chief counsel Khalil al-Dulaimi accused the Iraqi High Tribunal, the court that tried Saddam and seven others for crimes against humanity, of ''pursuing its continued efforts to obstruct the efforts of the defence to submit a legal ... appeal against the unjust verdicts''.

The defence team has repeatedly questioned the court's legitimacy, saying it is a creation of the occupying US forces and frequently boycotting its sessions in protest.

Dulaimi told the court in a letter that it was deliberately wasting valuable time by failing to provide a copy of the verdict, but a US official close to the court said defence lawyers had yet to formally ask the tribunal for the document, which US officials also have not seen.

''Under Iraqi procedure you have to go to the courthouse and request it on site. They have not done this. They have not asked for transport,'' he said, referring to the escort that US officials provide to all visitors to the maximum security court, which is situated in the heavily defended Green Zone.

Three defence lawyers in the case have been murdered and many of the remaining lawyers are based abroad.

The US official said it was not clear whether the defence team was playing for time, but if this was the case ''they are shooting themselves and their clients in the proverbial foot''.

The court's chief prosecutor, Jaafar al-Moussawi, told Reuters today it had been decided not to print the verdict, which runs to hundreds of pages, but to publish it on the tribunal's Web site, which appeared to be down today.

When told that the defence team was complaining they still did not have a copy of the verdict 10 days after it was announced, he said they could read it on the Web site.

''We cannot publish all these pages and deliver it to all the lawyers. Legally, nothing prevents us from delivering the verdict on the Web site,'' he said.

He said he was unsure whether it had been posted on the Web site but an official at the court's information centre said it would probably only appear next week. The official was unable to give a reason for the delay.

The verdict is eagerly awaited by international jurists keen to judge how the court performed. The only known copy has already been sent to the Appellate Chamber, meeting a 10-day deadline, the US official said.

After the 30-day deadline for submissions to the appeal court, the chamber has unlimited time to make its decision.

Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has said he expects Saddam to be executed before the end of the year, but Moussawi said he thought it could take up to three months.

''I will be there to see him hang,'' he said.

REUTERS AKJ BD1940