BAGHDAD, 22 October 2005 — A defense lawyer for one of Saddam Hussein’s co-defendants was shot dead after being abducted. Saadoun Janabi was kidnapped from his small Baghdad office late on Thursday, witnesses said. Police said yesterday his body was later found shot execution-style in the chest and head.
Iraq’s government condemned the murder, which some human rights groups said could have a “chilling effect” on Saddam’s defense team and dim hopes for a fair trial.
Janabi was attorney for Awad Al-Bander, a former judge who appeared with Saddam and six other co-accused in court on Wednesday at the start of their trial on charges stemming from the killings and executions of more than 140 men in the 1980s.
Bander is accused of overseeing the trials of dozens of men from the Shiite town of Dujail north of Baghdad who were sentenced to death in the wake of a failed assassination attempt against Saddam in July 1982. Janabi, lawyers said, had been an old friend of the former dictator.
The government vowed Saddam’s trial would not be halted by the killing of Janabi. “The investigation of this crime is under way. Terrorists have targeted officials within the government before and the Iraqi government much like before is committed to its war against terror,” chief government spokesman Laith Kubba said in a statement.
Witnesses interviewed near Janabi’s small Baghdad office said gunmen burst into the building about two hours after the breaking of the Ramadan fast. “We tried to help him but the gunmen told us to get away. They said they were from the Interior Ministry,” said Mohammed Ibrahim, who works in the area.
Several witnesses said more than a dozen heavily armed men in suits and ties entered Janabi’s office and dragged him into a car in the rundown Shaab district of Baghdad.
The ministry has repeatedly denied the allegations, and the government yesterday denied any involvement in the murder, saying it was ready to boost the already tight trial security. “Those suggestions are ridiculous and baseless. The government does not condone attacks against minorities and former figures in Saddam’s Baath Party,” National Security Adviser Mowaffaq Al-Rubaie said.
Saddam’s Iraqi lawyer, Khalil Al-Dulaimi, demanded better protection for Saddam’s legal team.
“If they can’t protect lawyers, how are they going to defend their clients and how will witnesses dare to come before the tribunals?” asked Badie Izzat Aref, a lawyer for former deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz. His client also faces trial for crimes against humanity.
Kubba said the government was committed to protecting all those involved in the trial, although he noted that no special security requests had been put forward by Janabi or other members of the defense team.
The US military announced yesterday that three Marines and a soldier had been killed, bringing the total number of US servicemen and women who have died in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion to at least 1,992.
Iraq’s Electoral Commission said final results from the Oct. 15 constitutional referendum would not be released for another day or two. They were supposed to have been announced yesterday.
The constitution is believed to have passed despite opposition from many Sunni Arabs who say it seals their political eclipse.
Some moderate Sunni leaders told visiting Arab League chief Amr Moussa they would attend a reconciliation conference in Cairo on Nov. 15 which is also expected to draw Arab foreign ministers worried over the regional implications of Iraq’s unending violence.
But other groups set conditions for participation, including the withdrawal of US troops, and hardcore insurgents seemed unlikely to be pulled to the negotiating table.
