Lawyers representing Saddam Hussein plan to sue the British tabloid that published intimate photos of the deposed Iraqi dictator, Al-Jazeera television reported on Friday, quoting the head of the defence team.
The photos in The Sun, one of which shows Saddam wearing only his underpants, are a ”violation of human rights and in contravention of the Geneva Convention” on treatment of prisoners, Ziad Khassawneh was quoted as saying.
Khassawneh said his team will ”pursue all the necessary legal steps to see to it that those who commit such base acts against any prisoner, and especially against president Saddam, are punished”.
”Analysis of the photos shows that they were taken inside the place where [Saddam] is being detained,” he said, adding that their publication in The Sun ”adds to a series of violations of the Iraqi people’s rights committed by the American administration”.
Under the headline ”Tyrant’s in his pants”, The Sun ran a front-page photo of a bare-chested Saddam standing in white underwear and holding an item of clothing as he appeared to be getting dressed.
In the accompanying article, along with other intimate photographs of him, the mass-circulation daily quotes United States military sources as saying they handed over the photos in the hope of dealing a body blow to the resistance in Iraq.
”Saddam is not Superman or God, he is now just an ageing and humble old man. It’s important that the people of Iraq see him like that to destroy the myth,” the source was quoted as saying.
”Maybe that will kill a bit of the passion in the fanatics who still follow him,” the source said. ”It’s over, guys. The evil days of Saddam’s Ba’ath Party are never coming back — and here’s the proof.”
In Baghdad, a US military spokesperson said the military is investigating the photos of Saddam to find out who took them and decide what kind of disciplinary action should be taken.
Al-Jazeera itself said that it chose not to publish the photos for ”professional and moral reasons”.
In contrast, its chief competitor, Al-Arabiya television, showed an image of The Sun‘s front page.
US tabloid newspaper the New York Post ran the same photo on its front page, under the banner headline ”Butcher of Sagdad”.
The intimate photo, along with three other pictures, was billed as ”exclusive” and borrowed from The Sun.
Both newspapers are owned by Australian-born media tycoon Rupert Murdoch. — Sapa-AFP