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Saddam Hussein has not confessed, says lawyer

Atul Aneja

Investigations do not implicate him at all, says attorney

MANAMA T: here has been no let up in violence in Iraq with a car bomb killing 16 Iraqis in Basra on Wednesday. This was the biggest post-occupation attack in Basra, which has been relatively peaceful when compared with central Iraq. The bombing took place in a Shia dominated locality where support for cleric Moqtada Al Sadr is well known.

Sectarian tensions involving Shias and Kurds on one side, and Sunnis on the other, have escalated in Iraq in recent weeks. Analysts point out that recent allegation by Iraq's Kurdish origin President Jalal Talabani that the former President, Saddam Hussein, had confessed to ordering executions is likely to deepen the sectarian divide. Mr. Hussein is known to have a strong support base in Central Iraq's Sunni heartland.

Responding to the allegation, Mr. Hussein's lawyer Khalial Dulaimi denied that his client had made any confessions. "There was no confession by the President and all the investigations in this case do not implicate him at all," he said.

Mr. Dulaimi sought the resignation of the investigator who was leaking information about the interrogation as he was prejudicing the trial process.

The attorney also urged Mr. Talabani not to make any statements that could compromise justice. Mr. Hussein's defence team has been angered by the spate of "politically motivated statements" by anonymous officials who have talked about a quick execution if Mr. Hussein was found guilty.

Meanwhile, the draft Constitution that the Sunni community has not endorsed will be put to vote in a referendum on October 15. "We studied a decision made by the National Assembly suggesting that October 15 be the date of the referendum, we agreed on that and the date is set," Hussein al-Hindawi, head of the Electoral Commission said. Copies of the draft that the Sunni negotiators opposed because it proposed a strong federal political system would be circulated among Iraqi voters prior to the vote.

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