'Saddam trial unfair without US security for lawyers'

"It's impossible to have a fair trial when you don't protect all the participants in the trial -- protection that only the United States can provide under the circumstances," Clark told a press conference in Washington.

Clark called for a protection program that would provide lawyers with body guards and move their families out of Iraq.

The lawyer said that without such protection, the former Iraqi leader would be subjected to "a show trial, a corruption of justice."

Along with the deaths of three lawyers, the most recent a week ago, Clark said: "Our witnesses have been intimidated."

Saddam and seven co-defendants are charged with executing 148 peope in the village of Dujail following an assassination attempt there against Saddam in 1982.

The defendants face execution by hanging if convicted in the trial set to resume on July 10.

Last Wednesday, Khamis al-Obeidi, 49, became the third defense lawyer slain since the start of the trial in October. Obeidi was abducted by twenty men and later shot dead in a Baghdad street in broad daylight.

Clark said the defense team was unable to present an effective case because lawyers had only minutes to call witnesses who went on the stand without being interviewed by the defense beforehand.

While defense lawyers operated under numerous handicaps, the prosecution had two years to prepare, he said.

Defense lawyers do not have the benefit of access to court room transcripts, receive evidence only once it is presented in court and cannot even get a ride to Baghdad from the airport, according to Clark.

He said that on the most recent trips, when promised escorts failed to materialize, US officials told the legal team to take the bus.

"That was an intentional attempt to intimidate us," he charged, while the prosecution stays in a well guarded hotel and travels in armed personnel carriers.

He said he petitioned for 10 bodyguards and automatic weapons but only received three guards with handguns.