A lawyer for one of Saddam Hussein's co-defendants was kidnapped on Thursday, a day after his client sat in the dock next to the former president on the opening day of their trial for crimes against humanity. Reuters reported.

Saadoun Janabi is defense counsel for former judge Jawad al-Bander, a senior legal source involved in the trial said.

"(He) was kidnapped this evening around 8:30 PM (17:30 GMT) from his office, which is also his home, in the Shaab district by eight armed men," the source said.

Police and Interior Ministry sources confirmed the kidnapping. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Eight men arrived in two cars and forced Janabi from his upper-storey office at gunpoint, the police sources said.

Bander is a former top judge under Saddam who is charged, along with the ousted leader and six others, over the killings and executions of Shi'ite men from the village of Dujail after Saddam escaped an assassination attempt there in 1982.

As Janabi was being taken, Irish journalist Rory Carroll was freed, a day after he was seized while reporting on a Baghdad Shi'ite family watching the televised start of Saddam's trial.

A British government source said he believed Carroll was released after two Iraqi prisoners were freed in southern Iraq.

"I don't know who took me," Carroll told Reuters. "I'm fine. I was treated reasonably well," he said, adding he wanted to go on reporting on Iraq, though his immediate plans were unclear.

"I spent the last 36 hours in the dark," he said.

Iraq's powerful Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Chalabi was present when he was released, Carroll added.
 
Saddam and the seven others went on trial on Wednesday but swiftly won an adjournment to November 28 to hone their defense after they pleaded not guilty; they all face the death penalty.

Security complaints

Defense lawyers want to bring in leading foreign attorneys to help them in a trial that has gripped Iraq and the world; Iraq's government and its US sponsors say the process will be fair, helping Iraqis put their troubled past behind them and demonstrating that its new democracy can work.

It was not clear if the kidnapping would deter foreign lawyers from coming or lead to further calls for adjournment.

It may add to complaints that confrontation verging on civil war between Saddam's once dominant Sunni Arab minority and the Shi'ite-led government is not compatible with a fair trial.

Kidnapping for political motives or money is rampant; Sunni insurgents and Shi'ite militias are both accused of killings.

Bander, in a plain white traditional robe, sat at Saddam's right hand in court on Wednesday, loudly demanding and then donning a checkered Arab headscarf as proceedings got under way.

He is accused for overseeing the trials of dozens of Dujail men who were sentenced to death in the wake of the incident. His defense is expected to argue he was simply upholding the law.

In three hours of televised courtroom exchanges, the ousted Iraqi president harangued the Kurdish judge and tussled with his guards. Thursday's newspapers were filled with coverage. "The people are victorious over a tyrant," read one banner headline.

The judge, who has risked revenge attacks by appearing on television to try Saddam, told Reuters the court also needed time to persuade witnesses who were "scared" to testify.

One who will definitely give evidence shortly is a former intelligence officer in Dujail who is dying of cancer. The presiding judge, Rizgar Amin, told Reuters he would soon testify in hospital in case he died or was too ill to appear in court.

"Wadah al-Sheikh is one of the main witnesses; we are going to get his testimony, maybe next week," the judge said. "He is in hospital and very sick with cancer so we have to go to him."

Iraqi security forces said on Thursday they arrested one of Saddam's nephews on suspicion of financing insurgents. Yasser Sabawi was captured in Saddam's hometown of Tikrit on Wednesday as residents protested to mark the beginning of Saddam's trial.

Arab league

Earlier on Thursday, Arab League chief Amr Moussa, who has said Iraq is on the verge of civil war, met Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari and other Iraqi leaders.
 
"We spoke about the new Iraq and the specific mission of the head of the Arab League ... in the framework of a national dialogue and national Iraqi reconciliation," Moussa said.

Iraq's Shi'ite leaders have been at odds with the Sunni governments of the rest of the Arab world, prompting fears that conflict within Iraq could spread across the region.

Shi'ite political leader Abdul Aziz al-Hakim criticised the Arab League during a news conference with Moussa.

"We reproach the Arab League and Arab states because of their position toward Iraq and Iraqis," he said, complaining that the 22-member League "did not condemn terrorist groups."

Other Arab leaders are wary of Baghdad's close ties to Washington and to non-Arab fellow Shi'ites in Iran.

An October 15 referendum on a constitution opposed by Sunnis as a recipe for division expected to pass, raising fears of an intensified campaign by the rebels once results are announced.

The Electoral Commission, which says it may issue results in a day or two, said it had received about 80 complaints, most of them relatively minor; some Sunni leaders have alleged fraud.

(Chinadaily.com via agencies October 21, 2005)