Committee formed to defend Saddam Hussein

It is expected that an international committee in defense of the rights of the toppled Iraqi President Saddam Hussein will be announced today under the auspices of four former officials from Algeria, France, Malaysia and the USA.

In a statement, the spokeswoman for this committee Sarah Salloun said that the former Algerian President Ahmad Bin Bella, the former prime minister of Malaysia Mahateir Muhammad, the French former foreign minister Roland Domain and the US former attorney general Ramzey Clark will announce the formation of an "emergency committee for Iraq" during a press conference in Washington.

Meanwhile, Lawyer Joviani De Stevano, who lives in London and member in the defendant commission for Saddam Hussein said that showing a new video of Saddam and four of his aides is unacceptable in the trial procedures and a violation of the Iraqi law.

The Iraqi TV broadcast sketches of a video tape in which Saddam seemed bearded answering questions put by the judge during his interrogation over likely crimes that took place in al-Dajil area ( 40 km to the north of Baghdad) following an assassination attempt against him in that area in 1982.