NEWSLETTER

Dr. Najeeb Al-Nuaimi was a lead lawyer on Saddam Hussein’s final legal defense team. Al-Nuaimi first came to prominence defending Guantánamo Bay inmates, and recently this renowned human rights activist of the Arab world sat down to talk to us.


ice: How do you feel now that Saddam has been executed?

Dr. Najeeb Al-Nuaimi: I have to say I was expecting it.

Was Saddam expecting it?

He said, “If death is my destiny, why should I change it?” Unfortunately, Saddam did not want an international trial. He said, “I was born here and I will die here.” He did not want to be Milosevic. He wanted to be in Iraq despite the fact that he knew that it was an occupiers’ trial. His country is under occupation and the court was set up by Americans.

And was he lucid when you would speak with him?

Yes. In his mind he was clear and aware of everything. He believed that judgment on him had already been made before the trial started and that the trial itself was just a play.

Did he believe that if he were executed, the majority of Iraqis would see him as a martyr? Did he think that it would feed the insurgency?

First of all, you’re using the wrong term. It is not an insurgency. We call it a resistance. Baathist, Islamic, whichever… It is a resistance.

Saddam’s appearance and his political words gave courage to Arab nationalists around the world. It showed that this guy is not afraid of anything. He believed that his country should be liberated from the forces that are in it now. We all believe that—even me. Iraq is under occupation. We should not kid ourselves that we are free, that America has left, or that there are free elections. This is not true. Iraq is an occupied state.

Why did you agree to represent Saddam when he was also clearly guilty of massive human rights violations? Were you defending Saddam the era or Saddam the accused?

I was contacted by his family and some colleagues, and I hesitated for about two or three months before accepting the job. I am known as a human rights activist, which, of course, doesn’t logically fit with me defending Saddam. But after seeing the photos being published in Britain with him in his underwear, I saw that his dignity and humanity had been insulted. I felt that this man had to have a good lawyer. So I defended Saddam the prisoner, not Saddam the era. Saddam was imprisoned by an occupier and he had the full right to have me as a lawyer.

Was your life in danger because of your decision to defend Saddam?

Five of my colleagues died in very harsh, terrible ways. So as a defender of Saddam, I was also treated like a prisoner in Iraq. During the trial they took us from the plane at the airport straight into a helicopter. It was for our own security, but it was not freedom. We followed an American system and chain of command. There was no freedom as a lawyer to come and go and they constantly told me, “You risk being killed,” and that they would not take responsibility.

Iraq is not really free and independent when lawyers must be flown in and out, then detained in a villa with 60 other lawyers inside using three bedrooms and two toilets. We got very frustrated. After one week we were all going mad.

INTERVIEWED BY TANYA HABJOUQA


TO BE CONTINUED:
SADDAM H. CHRIST | 1 | 2 | Next>

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