- AMMAN (AFP) - Lawyers for
ousted Iraqi president Saddam Hussein announced that they were asking the
International Court of Justice to prosecute the United States for war crimes,
even though individuals are not allowed to petition the tribunal.
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- Defence team spokesman Ziad Khassawneh acknowledged that
the petition would have to be signed by a member of the ousted regime as
the world court only hears cases forwarded by states and "duly authorised
international organs and agencies".
-
- However, like all of Saddam's counsel, Khassawneh insisted
that the ousted president remained Iraq 's legitimate head of state, given
what he described as the illegal nature of last year's US-led invasion.
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- "We insist that Saddam is the legitimate president
of Iraq and his government is the only government that represents Iraqis,
thus any official of his government is able to petition the court,"
the spokesman said.
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- There was no immediate reaction from the court's headquarters
in The Hague to the potential petition.
-
- Saddam's family has assembled a multi-national team of
lawyers to defend the ousted president against charges of war crimes and
crimes against humanity but it has been riven by differences over tactics.
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- Earlier this month, Khassawneh announced that lead counsel
Mohammed Rashdan had been dismissed for allegedly acting unilaterally and
failing to carry out legal work he had been paid for.
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- Saddam was brought before an Iraqi court on July 1, just
three days after the official end of the US-led occupation, for an initial
hearing on seven charges of crimes against humanity.
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- Among the charges were the 1988 gassing of the Kurds
in Halabja, the suppression of the 1991 Shiite Muslim uprising in southern
Iraq and the previous year's invasion of Kuwait.
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