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Lawyer: Saddam wants to sue Bush, Blair

(AP)
Updated: 2006-01-27 08:57

Saddam Hussein's chief lawyer said Thursday that the deposed Iraqi president wants US President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair tried on allegations of committing war crimes.

Khalil al-Dulaimi said Saddam wants to sue both leaders, along with US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, for allegedly authorizing the use of weapons such as depleted uranium artillery shells, white phosphorous, napalm and cluster bombs against Iraqis.

Former U.S. attorney general Ramsey Clark, one of Saddam's lawyers, front, and Saddam's chief Iraqi lawyer Khalil al-Dulaimi , back, leave in a car upon their arrival in Amman Airport, Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2006. [AP]

"We will sue Bush, Blair and Rumsfeld in The Hague for using such weapons of mass destruction," al-Dulaimi, in Jordan, told The Associated Press in Baghdad during a telephone interview.

No complaint has been filed to the International Criminal Court in The Netherlands, but al-Dulaimi said Saddam's foreign defense team will present it "very soon."

"President Saddam intends to bring those criminals to justice for their mass killings of Iraqis in Baghdad, Ramadi, Fallujah and Qaim and abusing prisoners at Abu Ghraib," the lawyer added.

Saddam also wants all Iraqis who have had relatives killed or had property damaged should receive at least $500,000 each.

Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein looks at prosecutors as he speaks at his trial in Baghdad December 22, 2005. [Reuters/file]

There have been several allegations that the United States used outlawed weapons, such as napalm, in the November 2004 Fallujah offensive, but the Pentagon has denied using it.

In November, the Pentagon acknowledged that U.S. troops used white phosphorous shells against insurgent strongholds in the same Fallujah battle, adding that they are a standard weapon and not banned by any international weapons convention to which the United States is a signatory.

Use of white phosphorous is covered by Protocol III of the 1980 Convention on Conventional Weapons, which prohibits use of the substance as an incendiary weapon against civilian populations and in air attacks against military forces in civilian areas. The United States is not a signatory to the convention.

U.S. soldiers have also claimed they have fallen ill to exposure to depleted uranium artillery shells in Iraq, but the Pentagon has said metal does not cause ailments.

Depleted uranium is the hard, heavy metal created as a byproduct of enriching uranium for nuclear reactor fuel or weapons material.

Most studies have indicated that depleted uranium exposure will not harm soldiers. But a 2002 study by Britain's Royal Society said soldiers who ingest or inhale enough depleted uranium could suffer kidney damage. It cautioned that there were too many uncertainties in the study to draw reliable conclusions.

Saddam, his half brother Barzan Ibrahim and six other defendants are on trial in the 1982 killing of more than 140 Shiite Muslims after an attempt on Saddam's life in the northern town of Dujail. They could face death by hanging if convicted.

But the trial, which started Oct. 19, has been complicated by the killings of two defense lawyers, courtroom brawls and Tuesday's postponement amid the replacement of the tribunal's top two judges. The case is set to resume Sunday.