Saddam Hussein’s chief lawyer today urged the United States not to hand over the ousted leader to Iraqi authorities before his expected execution because he is a “war prisoner”.

Lawyer Khalil al-Dulaimi called on international and legal organisations including the Arab League and United Nations to “rapidly prevent” the Americans from handing Saddam to the Iraqis.

“According to the international conventions it is forbidden to hand a prisoner of war to his adversary,” he said.

Iraq’s highest court on Tuesday rejected Saddam’s appeal against his conviction and death sentence for the killing of 148 people who were detained after an attempt to assassinate him in the northern Iraqi city of Dujail in 1982. The court said the former president should be hanged within 30 days.

Saddam is being held at Camp Cropper, an American military prison close to Baghdad’s airport.

The US military has had Saddam Hussein in its custody, on behalf of the Iraqis, since his capture.

An official close to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki has said Saddam would remain in a US military prison until he is handed over to Iraqi authorities on the day of his execution.

Al-Dulaimi warned that turning over Saddam to the Iraqis would increase the sectarian violence that already is tearing the country apart.

“If the American administration insists in handing the president to the Iraqis, it would commit a great strategic mistake which would lead to the escalation of the violence in Iraq and the eruption of a destructive civil war,” he said.

Issam Ghazzawi, another member of Saddam’s defense team, said there was no way of knowing when Saddam’s execution would take place.

“The only person who can predict the execution of the president … is God and (US president George) Bush,” Ghazzawi said.

In a goodbye letter posted on the internet on yesterday, Saddam urged Iraqis to embrace “brotherly coexistence” and not to hate the US-led troops.

“I call on you not to hate because hate does not leave space for a person to be fair and it makes you blind and closes all doors of thinking,” said the letter, which was written in Arabic.

Saddam is in the midst of another trial, charged with genocide and other crimes during a 1987-88 military crackdown on Kurds in northern Iraq. An estimated 180,000 Kurds died during the operation.

That trial was adjourned until January 8, and experts have said the trial of Saddam’s co-defendants is likely to continue even if he is executed.

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