Saddam's lawyers to plead illegitimacy of Iraq's special court

The lawyers of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein will plead the illegitimacy of the Iraqi special court where he is expected to appear on Thursday, one of his twenty lawyers said in Paris on Wednesday.

"We will fight over the principles, meaning the illegality of the Iraqi special court installed by an illegal government deriving from an illegal war. I expect that Saddam Hussein is always considered as president of Iraq and does not admit the interim government, which has no legitimacy to judge him," said Emmanuel Ludot, one of the twenty lawyers entrusted by Saddam's family.

She said that the defense policy is similar to that of former Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic in the International Penal Tribunal (IPT) in Hague. "Though we can not compare the situationin Iraq with what is in Yugoslavia, where intervention came from the United Nations," she added.

"Further more, Saddam Hussein has to confirm the entrustment that his wife gave to us to plead for him, he is free to decide how to organize the advocacy," she noted.

Source: Xinhua