[JURIST] Khalil al-Dulaimi, chief defense counsel for Saddam Hussein [JURIST news archive], said Wednesday that the Iraqi High Tribunal is obstructing his efforts to appeal Hussein's death sentence [JURIST report] for crimes against humanity committed in the Iraqi town of Dujail [BBC trial timeline; JURIST news archive]. Dulaimi reiterated complaints that the trial did not adhere to fair standards and accused the court of "pursuing its continued efforts to obstruct the efforts of the defense to submit a legal cassation appeal against the unjust verdicts." He also said the defense has not yet received copies of the verdict. Under the Iraqi Code of Criminal Procedure No. 23 of 1971 [text, PDF] appeals must be filed within 15 days of the trial decision, Dulaimi said he believes the court has "deliberately and intentionally wasted and exhausted" the efforts of the defense team by withholding an official copy of the verdicts for more than 10 days. Article 27 of the statute of the Iraqi High Tribunal [text, PDF] requires a sentence to be carried out within 30 days of an appellate judgment. AFP has more.

Hussein and two co-defendants were convicted and sentenced to death by hanging [AP recorded video; JURIST report] earlier this month for crimes against humanity [charging instrument, PDF] committed in Dujail. Hussein was charged [JURIST report] with killing, torturing and illegally detaining Dujail residents, including the execution of 148 Shiites [JURIST report], after an unsuccessful attempt on his life there in 1982. The genocide trial [JURIST news archive] of Saddam for allegedly killing 100,000 Kurds in the "Anfal" campaigns [HRW backgrounder] in the late 1980s was adjourned [JURIST report] last week for three weeks.