JURIST - Paper Chase: Saddam defense team demands delay or foreign trial venue after lawyer murder

[JURIST] Members of the defense team for Saddam Hussein [JURIST news archive] demanded Friday that his trial be delayed or moved outside of Iraq after the body of a kidnapped defense lawyer for one of Hussein's co-defendants was found [JURIST report] Friday. The lawyers called for the trial to be postponed past November 28 [JURIST report], the scheduled date for the trial to resume, if the investigation into Saadoun Sughaiyer al-Janabi's killing is not then complete. The defense team also called for more security and to move the trial out of Iraq, but such a request is unlikely to be met since the government has previously insisted that the trial should take place in Iraq before Iraqis. Khalil Dulaimi, Saddam's chief lawyer, confirmed that the defense team has been receiving threats via phone and e-mail since Janabi was kidnapped [JURIST report] Thursday. Another of Saddam's lawyers said that government officials and Interior Ministry members were meeting Friday night to discuss further security measures. AP has more.

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