RAMADI, Nov 9: Lawyers for Saddam Hussein and his aides severed all contact with the court trying the former Iraqi president on Wednesday after the second murder of a member of the defence team since the trial began last month.

The judge said the court was considering its response.

Attorneys representing Saddam and seven co-accused on charges of crimes against humanity considered a second day of hearings set for Nov 28 to be “cancelled and illegitimate”, lead counsel Khalil al Dulaimi said.

Interviewed in Ramadi, west of Baghdad, he said he felt personally threatened and renewed demands for the United Nations to intervene to stop the trial following Tuesday’s killing of lawyer Adil al-Zubeidi.

Judge Rizgar Amin, who presides over a panel of five trial judges, said they had yet to decide how to respond to the problem: “Now is the time to sit and talk and discuss this among ourselves so we can reach a decision in the coming days.”

It was for the government to protect the lawyers, he said.

“We’re facing daily threats and these threats prevent us from going to our offices and the court and from interviewing the witnesses,” said Dulaimi after the defence team issued a statement blaming the US occupying forces and Iraq’s government for failing to provide security for them.

Dulaimi said: “We call on the international community, the UN Security Council, the United States and all those involved to work on scrapping the criminal court as illegitimate, and also to pressure it to release President Saddam Hussein and his legitimate leadership team.—Reuters