| Saddam meets with lawyers one year after arrest Original Source Link: (May no longer be active) http://olympics.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=7114327http://olympics.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=7114327
Saddam Hussein Meets with Lawyer for First Time Thu Dec 16, 2004 09:32 AM ET
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Saddam Hussein met with a lawyer on Thursday for the first time since he was arrested a year ago, his defense team said. "The interview lasted for more than four hours. The president seems in good health, much better compared to his first appearance before the court," Saddam's Amman-based legal team said in a statement.
Iraq's former leader has been in custody since U.S. forces found him hiding in a hole near his hometown of Tikrit on Dec. 13 last year and is due to be tried for war crimes along with 11 of his top deputies.
Saddam's defense lawyers said earlier this week they did not recognize the Iraqi interim government's plans to try the 67-year-old or his aides since they had been denied access to their clients and had not been given legal documents on which to prepare their case.
Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said on Tuesday that war crimes trials of some of Saddam's top aides would begin next week. Defense Minister Hazim Shaalan said Saddam's feared cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as "Chemical Ali," would be the first to stand trial.
However, Western diplomats and Iraqi officials have said the proceedings were not the start of a war crimes trial but preliminary investigative hearings.
Saddam himself is expected to be among the last to be tried. The Special Tribunal organizing the process said on Wednesday that those whose trials were most imminent had been granted access to lawyers.
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