Indian lawyers for Saddam: Bhim Singh

A team of 11 lawyers drawn from different countries would defend the captured Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein [ Images ] during his trial, Jammu and Kashmir [ Images ] National Panthers Party chairman Bhim Singh said on Saturday.

"We are in the process of constituting Saddam's International Defence Committee comprising prominent lawyers from Russia [ Images ], Egypt [ Images ], Syria, India and some western countries to defend the ousted leader," Singh who is also a lawyer said.

A meeting of these lawyers is likely to take place in the first week of January in New Delhi [ Images ] to work out the strategy, he said. "We will also contact the United Nations seeking its cooperation to take up Saddam's case."

On President Pervez Musharraf's [ Images ] statement that Pakistan was prepared to drop its demand for UN-sponsered plebiscite in Kashmir, the JKNPP leader said Islamabad [ Images ] has all along violated the UN resolutions by illegally occupying a portion of Kashmir and also handing over part of it to China.

He said Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee [ Images ] should properly weigh the pros and cons of the statement of Pakistani president before reacting or initiating any step.