From:Chinadaily
Amman, Jordan - Defense lawyers called Friday for judges to postpone their verdict in Saddam Hussein‘s Dujail trial -- expected Sunday -- and allow them to present final arguments in defense of the deposed president.
The call came in a letter addressed to the presiding judge of the Baghdad court that has been trying Saddam and his seven co-defendants on charges of crimes against humanity for the past 13 months. A copy of the letter was given to The Associated Press in Amman.
The 10-member defense team, including former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark, wrote that it would be premature to deliver the verdict on Sunday "because the court did not receive the final defense statements yet."
The letter asked the judge for permission to "read the defense final statements and for the court to set another date for the defense argument in not less than 60 days‘ time."
It was not possible to confirm that the judges had received the letter on Friday.
When the trial adjourned on July 27 for the judges to consider their verdict, Saddam was represented by court-appointed lawyers because his own counsel had boycotted the trial since the June killing of their colleague Khamis al-Obeidi, the third defense attorney to be slain during the trial.
Saddam and seven former members of his regime have pleaded innocent to the killing of 148 Muslim Shiites from the northern Iraqi town of Dujail in 1982. The inhabitants were shot after an attempt to assassinate Saddam as he passed through the town.
He is widely expected to be convicted and condemned to death.
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萨达姆的辩护律师安曼·约旦周五要求法官将对萨达姆·候赛因的原定于周日执行的杜贾尔村案的审判推迟，并且要求允许他们为免职的总统做最后的陈辨。
这个要求是以信件的形式呈递给巴格达法院的首席法官的，巴格达法院曾就萨达姆和他手下的另七名被告在过去13个月内所做的反人权的罪行进行了审判。这封信的复印件被送到了在安曼的联合新闻社。
包括前美国首席检察官拉姆齐·克拉克在内的10人辩护团在信中写到，周日执行审判还不够成熟，“因为法院还没有收到最后的辩护声明。”
信中请求法官允许“陈述最后的辩护声明，宣读最终辩护声明，并为最终辩护重新设定日期，期限不低于60天。”
目前尚不能确定法官们已经于周五收到了这封信。
自7月27日由于法官考虑到他们的量刑而被中止审判开始，萨达姆由法院指派的律师为其辩护，因为他自己的辩护律师自六月份开始就抵制审判，因为他们的同僚Khamis al-Obeid被杀害， Khamis al-Obeid是第三个在审判期间被杀害的律师。
萨达姆和他前权力集团的七人已经就1982年在伊拉克北部杜贾尔村杀害148名穆斯林什叶派村民的事件做了无罪辩护。这些村民是在试图暗杀行经该村该村萨达姆之后被杀害的。
人们还是希望判萨达姆有罪并将其处于死刑。 |
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