Former Us Attorney General Joins Saddam Defence Team

Ramsey Clark, a former US attorney general, has joined Saddam Hussein's legal team to contest before a special tribunal charges of committing wholesale atrocities, it was announced yesterday.

Mr Clark, who led the justice department under President Lyndon Johnson, flew on Tuesday to Amman, Jordan, where the 20-strong international defence team is based. A spokesman for the team, Ziad Khassawneh, said his arrival "honours and inspires us".

The defence team already includes one American lawyer, Curtis Doebbler, and a former French foreign minister, Roland Dumas.

Mr Clark has been an outspoken voice on the American left since leaving government in 1969 and joining the movement against the Vietnam war. He has also been involved in the defence of Slobodan Milosevic, the former Yugoslav leader.

In Amman this week, Mr Clark said: "In international law, anyone accused of crime has the right to be tried by a competent, independent and impartial court, and there can be no fair trial without those qualities.

"The special court in Iraq was created by the Iraqi governing council, which is nothing more than a creation of the US military occupation."