In an interview last week, Ziad al-Khasawneh, head of a committee of lawyers set up to defend Saddam, said a writ of habeas corpus had been lodged in America.

The intention, he said, was to remove Saddam from Iraq and prevent him from being forced to appear before the Iraqi Special Tribunal, established by the American-led administration last December to try members of the former regime.

“This may remove Saddam from the game of handing him to the Iraqis who are hostile to him,” said Khasawneh.

A writ of habeas corpus (literally “you may have the body”) requires an inmate to be brought before a court so that it can be determined whether or not he is lawfully detained. If granted in Saddam’s case, it would ensure that he was taken out of Iraq “for his protection”, Khasawneh said.

During the interview over two days at his office in Amman, Khasawneh, who has practised law for 30 years, spoke of his admiration for Saddam. He has worked on the case for a year and a half and said that his appointment as head of the defence committee had the blessing of the former president and Raghad, his eldest daughter.

“This is not a pure defence for Saddam but it is a defence of Iraq and in fact a defence of the entire world,” Khasawneh said as his mobile phone rang repeatedly.

“When a giant like the USA strikes against one country, then it can at any time strike against any other country. What happened in Iraq sets a dangerous precedent — one which is also linked to the issue of human rights in general.”

The committee is supported by 2,500 lawyers, Arabs and non-Arabs alike. The overwhelming majority work unpaid. Of these, 1,040 are Iraqis and 800 are Jordanian.

There are also large contingents from Yemen, Sudan and Libya, including Colonel Muammar Gadaffi’s daughter Aisha. Others come from Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria, Malaysia, Britain, France and America.

Among the Americans are Curtis Doebbler, 43, an academic and former legal adviser to the Palestinian Authority who has represented some of the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, and William Ramsey Clark, 77, attorney-general from 1967-9 under President Lyndon B Johnson.

Clark, a veteran human rights campaigner, has provided legal counsel and advice to several figures in conflict with western governments, including Slobodan Milosevic, the former Serbian leader.

“The special court in Iraq was created by the Iraqi governing council, which is nothing more than a creation of the US military occupation and has no authority in law as a criminal court,” Clark declared on joining the committee this year.

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