Saddam gets counselling to end hunger strike
Saddam Hussein is receiving psychiatric counselling to convince him
to start eating again after 12 days on hunger strike in a US military
prison. Saying that the 69-year-old ousted Iraqi president was still
refusing food but taking liquid nourishment, a US spokesman said such
counselling was part of additional daily medical care for inmates who
risked damaging their health by their actions.
"Medical and mental health professionals counsel the detainees on the
dangers," Lieutenant Colonel Keir-Kevin Curry said. "They try to
convince the detainees to end their fast." Saddam and three
co-defendants who last ate on July 7 are all healthy, Curry said.
A lawyer for Saddam, who is due back in court on Monday, has said his
client's health has suffered but that he is determined to pursue the
protest until US officials improve protection for defence attorneys and
meet other demands on the trial.
US officials involved with the Iraqi court trying Saddam and seven
others for crimes against humanity have said that a defence lawyer
killed last month, the third since the trial began, had refused US
offers of protection.
The defence team responded to a letter in English from a foreign
legal adviser to the court urging them to end a boycott of the
proceedings by publishing the letter, describing it as a threat and
complaining it should have been written in Arabic.
(Reuters)
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