RAMADI, Iraq (Reuters) - Lawyers for Saddam Hussein and his aides severed all contact with the court trying the former Iraqi president on Wednesday after the second killing of a member of the defense team since the trial began last month.
The judge said the court was considering its response.
But the prime minister made clear he would not heed calls to move the trial abroad. Hinting Saddam's own followers had a hand in the killings, he said lawyers had refused police protection.
The attorneys representing Saddam and seven co-accused on charges of crimes against humanity considered a second day of hearings set for November 28 to be "canceled and illegitimate," lead counsel Khalil al-Dulaimi told Reuters.
Speculation:
Could these lower-tiered lawyers have been purposefully rubbed out to give Saddam's legal team a basis to cast a shadow of illegitimacy over the trial and the court hearing it?
Honestly, that's the only explanation that makes sense to me right now.