An Iraqi lawyer who represented two of Saddam's seven co-defendants and was wounded in an ambush that killed one of his colleagues has fled Iraq and is seeking asylum in the Gulf state of Qatar.
"I was only a lawyer who practiced his profession in Iraq. Yet I was subjected to an assassination attempt and to danger that might have even touched my family," Mr Thamir al-Khuzaie said today. "So I decided to leave the country."
Mr Al-Khuzaie was injured in a November 8th ambush in western Baghdad in which another defence lawyer, Adel al-Zubeidi, was killed. Mr Al-Zubeidi was the second defence lawyer involved in the case to be assassinated since the trial opened in October.
Saddam's personal lawyer, Khalil al-Dulaimi, broke off dealings with the Iraqi special court following the killing of lawyer Saadoun al-Janabi, whose body was found two days after the opening session.
After the assassination of the second lawyer, Mr al-Dulaimi indicated the defence team would not show up for the November 28th session. About 1,100 Iraqi lawyers involved in the case behind the scenes also announced they were quitting the defence team because of security fears.
Nonetheless, officials of the Iraqi High Tribunal say they will go ahead with the second session as planned and will appoint replacements if defence attorneys don't appear.
An Iraqi government spokesman said the defence team had twice rejected offers to move them into the heavily guarded Green Zone for the duration of the trial. He rejected suggestions that the trial should be moved out of the country and accused the defence of using the security issue to try to subvert the proceedings.