Defense lawyer in Saddam trial abducted in ****
**** (Reuters) - A lawyer for one of Saddam Hussein's co-defendants was kidnapped from his home on Thursday, a day after he sat in the dock next to the former president on the opening day of their trial for crimes against humanity.
His client is former judge Jawad al-Bander, a senior legal source involved in the trial told Reuters.
"Saadoun Janabi was kidnapped this evening around 8.30 p.m. (1730 GMT) from his office, which is also his home, in the Shaab district by eight armed men," the source said.
Police and Interior Ministry sources confirmed the kidnapping. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
Eight men arrived in two cars and forced Bander from his upper-storey office at gunpoint, the police sources said.
Bander is a former top judge under Saddam who is charged, along with Saddam and six others, over the killings and executions of Shi'ite men from the village of Dujail after Saddam escaped an assassination attempt there in 1982.
As he was being taken, another kidnap ****, Irish journalist Rory Carroll was freed, a day after he was seized after reporting on the reactions of a **** Shi'ite family to the televised first day of Saddam's trial.
His London newspaper, the Guardian, said on its Web site the 33-year-old reporter had been treated well and was now in an Iraqi government compound. He told his parents by telephone that Iraqi government officials had collected him from captivity.
Saddam and seven others went on trial on Wednesday on charges of crimes against humanity connected to the killing of 148 Shi'ites from the village of Dujail in the 1980s.
The defendants won a 40-day adjournment to November 28 to hone their defense after they all pleaded not guilty on Wednesday.
