December 9, 2005

BAGHDAD - A Shiite cleric called on Iraqi authorities Friday to arrest the former US attorney general and Qatari lawyer who are helping to defend Saddam Hussein in his trial for crimes against humanity.

"The authorities must arrest the American and Qatari lawyers who entered the country in an illegal manner," Sheikh Mohammed Saleh al-Haidari said in his weekly sermon at the Killani mosque in Baghdad.

Ramsey Clark and Najib Nuaimi left Iraq after the former dictator's trial was adjourned Wednesday until December 21.

Haidari, seen as a representative of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the spiritual father of Iraq's Shiite majority, said he wanted to see Saddam the "criminal punished".

He urged Iraqis to be patient and wait for an eventual trial sentencing in response to Shiite calls for Saddam to be executed almost on the spot.

The trial is an opportunity for the former president's crimes to come to light, the cleric preached.

"The Iraqis, schooled in these crimes, will never let the Baathists back into positions of responsibility in the next government," he said.

The 68-year-old Saddam is standing trial with seven of his lieutenants for the massacre of 148 Shiite villagers in the early 1980s.

Haidari called on voters to plump for religious Shiite candidates in next Thursday's parliamentary election despite Sistani's expressed neutrality ahead of the free, secret ballot.

12/09/2005 15:09 GMT