Saddam, along with three of his lawyers, began the latest in a long line of protests over trial proceedings last Friday with a hunger strike. This most recent effort shows that he and his co-defendants are serious about their concerns over the conduct of his trial; principally the lack of security provision for his 'team'.
Although he is refusing meals, he is accepting fluids, nutrients and medication, and US military officials insist there is no danger to his health – a statement which is not, however, reflected in the comments made by Saddam's lawyer Khalil al-Dulaimi, who said in a recent Reuters interview: "President Saddam Hussein's health has started to deteriorate because he is on a hunger strike for the seventh straight day."
Saddam has initiated several hunger strikes thus far, and the protest over security failures for his defense lawyers is somewhat understandable if we consider the huge risks they face – Khamis al-Obeidi was the latest to be shot dead, just last month.
Since the trial began in October 2005, there have been three deaths within Saddam's team, and though this strike is unlikely to prove influential in promoting any change, one has to admit that there is an obvious lack of security that requires immediate refinement. If this does not happen, the trial is in danger of becoming, as Saddam's eldest daughter has claimed (and Saddam has maintained from the outset), "a farce" and wholly "unfair".
What's more, it appears that Saddam's 'team' is completely expendable, whether they're shot or starved, the trial must go on. His defense attorneys have been warned that, after failing to show for the 'closing arguments' in Baghdad on Monday, further absence will result in the assignment of court-appointed lawyers, allowing the trial to continue, or in this case, to conclude.
