 A key prosecution witness in Saddam Hussein's trial will testify at an unexpected session Sunday because the former intelligence official is seriously ill with cancer, officials said Thursday. Meanwhile, the lawyer for one of Saddam's co-defendants was kidnapped, police said. The witness, Wadah Ismael Al-Sheik, was a senior Iraqi intelligence officer at the time of the Dujail massacre in 1982 that Saddam and seven other co-defendants are charged with, two lawyers said. They spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid compromising the case or the heavy security surrounding it.
Lawyers said Al-Sheik will testify Sunday at a U.S. detention center where he is being held near Baghdad's international airport because of his cancer. If he recovers, he could be a defendant in a later case regarding another alleged massacre carried out during Saddam's rule, the lawyers said. The session would not involve reconvening the full trial, but rather would be a hearing to take a deposition from al-Sheik, the lawyers said. |