Saddam hospitalized due to hunger strike

Baghdad: Saddam Hussein was hospitalized on Sunday on the 17th day of a hunger strike, the chief prosecutor in his trial said.

Jaafar al-Moussawi said he visited the prison on Sunday where Saddam and the seven other co-defendants are held and was told that the ex-president's health ''is unstable because of the hunger strike.''

''We took him to hospital and he is being currently fed by a tube,'' al-Moussawi said. He refused to identify the hospital.

Asked if Saddam's health had improved, al-Moussawi replied: ''No, it is not stable yet.''

Saddam and three others - presumed to be co-defendants Barzan Ibrahim, Taha Yassin Ramadan and Awad al-Bandar - have been refusing food since dinner on July 7 to protest the Iraqi High Tribunal procedures and security for their defense attorneys and three of them have been slain.

The action was launched after the June 21 slaying of Khamis al-Obeidi, the third member of the team to be assassinated since the trial began last October. The defense team has blamed Shiite militiamen for al-Obeidi's death.

In a letter to the court, the defense said it wanted US authorities to provide security for the lawyers and their families. It also demanded a 45-day recess to allow it to prepare its closing statements and a promise from the court that it would be allowed to take as long as it wishes in its final arguments.

Court spokesman Raid Juhi said the defense had rejected an offer of the same security precaution given to the judges and prosecution lawyers: residence inside the Green Zone, the fortified Baghdad neighborhood where the court is located.

Saddam and the others are charged in the crackdown on Shiites in the town of Dujail following a 1982 assassination attempt against the Iraqi leader.

Saddam is also due to go on trial August 21 for the crackdown on the Kurds in the 1980s.