Saddam trial's defense lawyer kidnapped, killed

A defense lawyer in former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein's mass murder trial who was kidnapped has been found dead after his body was dumped near a Baghdad mosque, police and a top lawyers' union official said yesterday.

Saadoun Sughaiyer al-Janabi was abducted by 10 masked gunmen who burst into his office and dragged him away on Thursday evening, a day after he participated in the first session of the trial, acting as the lawyer of one Saddam's seven co-defendants.

His body, with two bullet shots to the head, was found hours later on a sidewalk near Fardous Mosque in the eastern neighborhood of Ur, near the site of his office, police Major Falah al-Mohammedawi said. His identity was confirmed yesterday, al-Mohammedawi said.

Diaa al-Saadi, a senior lawyers syndicate official, said al-Janabi's family confirmed to him that al-Janabi was dead.

"This will have grave repercussions. This will hinder lawyers from defending those held for political reasons," al-Saadi warned.

Al-Janabi's family refused to comment.

The killing was the first setback for a tribunal that has been held under tight security.

Heavy protection was provided for prosecutors and judges in the Saddam trial on the theory that they were likely targets of pro-Saddam insurgents seeking revenge. Their names have not been revealed and their faces were not shown in the broadcast of Wednesday's opening session -- with the exception of the presiding judge and the top prosecutor, whose identities were revealed for the first time just before the trial.

But security measures do not appear to have been extended to the defense lawyers for Saddam and his seven co-defendants.

Al-Janabi was defending Awad Hamed al-Bandar, the former head of Saddam's Revolutionary Court. Saddam and the seven top officials from his Baath regime face a possible death sentence if convicted in their trial on charges of murder and torture in a 1982 massacre of 148 Shiites in the town of Dujail.

Saddam's chief lawyer said after the kidnapping that defense lawyers had received many threats.