BAGHDAD, July 30 (UPI) -- Iraqi lawyers want to set up a special committee for defending ex-Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, who will be tried on charges of massacre and genocide.
Jordan daily al-Dustour quoted sources from the Amman-based international committee for defending Saddam, which said Iraqi lawyer Khalil Dalimi informed them efforts were under way to set up an Iraqi defense committee to represent Saddam legally at the trial.
They said Dalimi, who met Saddam several times in his cell, told them that the former Iraqi dictator was unhappy by the absence of Iraqi lawyers in his defense group.
Saddam also was upset by differences that marred the work of the international committee for his defense which led to the quitting of its president, Jordanian lawyer Ziad Khasawneh.
Khasawneh pulled out after Saddam's family asked former U.S. Attorney General Ramsay Clark to defend him.
