AMMAN, Nov 30: Iraqis have asked Saddam Hussein’s defence team to mull the possibility of fielding the ousted president as a candidate for future elections, one of his lawyers said in remarks published on Wednesday.

“Iraqis have asked the defence team to study the legal conditions to present Saddam Hussein as a candidate for elections, first as an MP then as president,” Jordan’s Al Dustour daily quoted former Qatari justice minister Najib al Nuaimi as saying.

“If this contradicts the legal system then president Saddam will be nominated simply as a candidate,” he said, without specifying if Saddam could try to run in the Dec 15 election.

Mr Nuaimi is among three foreign lawyers along with former US attorney general Ramsey Clark and Jordanian lawyer Issam Ghazzawi who were sworn in by the Iraqi court as members of Saddam Hussein’s defence at Monday’s hearing.

Asked by a newsman about Mr Nuaimi’s reported remarks, Mr Ghazzawi said: “As we were leaving Iraq on Tuesday ordinary Iraqis at the airport approached us saying they wished that Saddam would return (as president).”

“These Iraqis said ‘we have lost security after Saddam, how we wish he would return’,” Mr Ghazzawi said.—AFP