Saddam lawyers 'not ready' for trial

Iraqi judges and prosecutors chosen to try Saddam Hussein are "nowhere near ready", according to western officials who saw them at a secret training session in London.

Amid growing recriminations, the advisers have claimed that the United Nations and Europe are refusing to provide the tribunal with desperately needed help.

Lt-Col Michael Newton, a US military lawyer from the West Point academy who took part in the training session in October, said: "The judges and prosecutors have much to learn about conducting complex trials in accordance with international law. But their calls for help are not being answered." The week-long session, kept secret for security reasons, brought together 42 Iraqis - almost the entire complement of the special tribunal - and a number of American advisers, including Col Newton, who are providing support.

The Iraqis were addressed by some prominent British figures, including human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson and the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Woolf. But the UN ordered serving staff - including experienced lawyers from the Yugoslavia war crimes tribunal - not to take part because of concerns about the fairness of the proposed trial procedure and the tribunal's willingness to impose the death penalty.

Britain and other European countries are reluctant to help openly for the same reasons.

One official who attended the sessions said: "The Iraqis know very little about how to manage a trial like this and they would be the first to admit that they were nowhere near ready. But it is outrageous that they are not being provided with more help."

Richard Dicker of Human Rights Watch, which recently released a scathing report on the tribunal, said there was "real panic" among US advisers, who had "mishandled" the preparation for the trial, leaving the tribunal with "neither forensic nor documentary evidence, nor many key witnesses". American forces failed to safeguard records and the sites of key massacres when they invaded, Mr Dicker said, and "real problems" about potential torture, lack of access to lawyers and other unfair treatment of defendants needed to be addressed before the tribunal could progress.

Speaking to Arab journalists this week, Qasim Dawud, the Iraqi national security minister, said no trials would start before the elections that are expected at the end of next month, and even then Saddam's would not be the first.

The toppled dictator, meanwhile, continues to be held in a small isolation cell at a base for "high-value" detainees at Baghdad airport. Visitors say he still refuses to accept he has done anything wrong and insists he remains president of Iraq.