Will Zhirinovsky Defend Saddam?

Russia's LDPR leader wants to use the trial on Hussein for his own PR campaign
On December 17 it became known that Iraqi provisional council made a list of charges to be brought against Saddam Hussein. The list turned out to be rather long. The former dictator may be accused of organizing mass assassinations, committing war crimes and crimes against humanity with respect to the Iraqi, Kuwaiti and Iranian people, of chemical weapons usage against Iraqi and Iranian people.

The ex-president of Iraq will be also accused of unleashing two major wars that jeopardized the national and regional security, of deporting hundreds of thousands people and of embezzlement of national wealth. Meanwhile, even though the trial on Saddam has not started yet (it is unlikely to start in the nearest future), there is little hope that the justice will be objective. Actually, a death sentence has been already passed on Saddam. Even US President George W. Bush could not resist the temptation and told ABC journalists that he thought the Iraqi dictator deserved the extreme penalty.

French attorney Jacques Verges, who defended Nazi criminal Klaus Barbie and terrorist Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, has volunteered to defend Saddam Hussein. However, it turns out that the Iraqi leader may have another defender, leader of Russia's Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR) Vladimir Zhirinovsky who wants to employ the Saddam capture for his PR campaign. The LDPR leader thinks the trial on Saddam Hussein is developing into purely political proceedings. In this connection Vladimir Zhirinovsky issued a press release to state that being a professional lawyer he may serve the best candidature for protection of the Iraqi dictator.
Vladimir Zhirinovsky will defend the ex-president of Iraq without any fee, as he believes the trial will be really important for him.

It has become known who gave Saddam away to Americans. It was Saddam's cousin who had been a bodyguard of the dictator for a very long period. The man was arrested several days before the capture of the former Iraqi leader. The man indicated three places where Saddam might be hiding. The first place was near Samarra (65 kilometers northwards of Baghdad), the second - in the settlement of Al-Dubai (120 kilometers northwards of Baghdad) and the third - near Al-Dor where the Iraqi dictator was arrested later.

According to the Iraqi newspaper Assabah, the three refuges were of the same type. Searches of the first and the second refuges brought no results. American servicemen noticed a taxi hidden in palm branches near the third refuge indicated by Saddam's bodyguard and later found out that Saddam Hussein was inside of the building.

The newspaper reported on December 17 that former deputy of Saddam Hussein in the Revolutionary Command Council Izzat Ibrahim Al-Douri gave himself up on Tuesday, December 16. Americans say the man is the leader of the Iraqi resistance movement.