Key Witness In Saddam Hussein's Trial Dies
 

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BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- A key witness against Saddam Hussein has died of cancer, but his testimony has been recorded on audio and video tape for presentation in the trial scheduled to begin next week, the main prosecutor said Friday.

Wadah Ismael Al-Sheik died on October 27, four days after talking to court officials, said Jafaar al-Mousawi, the main prosecutor. He said the testimony at a U.S. detention center was "on the side of the victims."

Al-Sheik, was a senior Iraqi intelligence officer at the time of the Dujail massacre in 1982 that Hussein and seven other co-defendants are charged with. The trial is set to resume on Monday. (Full story)

If convicted, Hussein and the others could face the death penalty for their role in the killing of 148 people from the mainly Shiite town of Dujail north of Baghdad after a failed attempt on Hussein's life. (Watch how the trial has been delayed and disrupted -- 2:43)

A spokesman for the defense said Thursday in Amman, Jordan, that Hussein's defense lawyers will attend the trial despite the recent assassinations of two team members.

"A decision has been taken not to leave the president alone," Issam Ghazawi told The Associated Press, referring to Hussein as president.

"We will not allow the court to appoint other lawyers," Ghazawi said. "The lawyers are forced to attend the hearings, despite serious threats on their lives, but they want to do that to serve justice."

In violence Thursday, an attack the U.S. military blames on a suicide bomber killed 30 people at a hospital south of Baghdad.

saddams a pimp

Why am I not suprised???

it's cancer man, it's not assassination.