Gunmen killed a second defence lawyer acting in Saddam Hussein's trial for crimes against humanity Tuesday, renewing questions over whether the former president can get a fair trial amid Iraq's daily violence.

Another defence lawyer was slightly wounded in the attack on their car in Baghdad, police and defence team sources said.

The shooting followed the murder of another defence lawyer who was shot the day after the televized start of proceedings on October 19. It stoked controversy about whether the high-profile trial should be delayed or moved abroad.

The defence team, which had already threatened to boycott the next hearing on November 28 unless measures are taken to protect them, said a fair trial was impossible in current circumstances.

In the latest attack, Adil al-Zubeidi was killed and his colleague Thamer Hamoud al-Khuzaie was wounded when their car, a plain red saloon, came under fire in the western Baghdad district of Hay al-Adil, police and defence team sources said.

Both men were on a team defending Saddam's half-brother Barzan al-Tikriti and former Vice-President Taha Yassin Ramadan, legal sources said.

In last month's attack, Saadoun al-Janabi, representing another of the eight defendants, was kidnapped from his office and shot by men who local people said identified themselves as Interior Ministry employees on October 20, the day after the lawyer's court appearance at the start of the trial.

Khuzaie was among lawyers who appeared on the same bench with Janabi in the trial, lawyers who know both men said.

"There can be no fair trial without providing security for witnesses, judges and lawyers on an equal footing. No trial can take place in such conditions," Issam Ghazzawi, a spokesman for Saddam's Jordan-based defence team said in Amman.

Nicole Choueiry, a spokeswoman for Amnesty International in London, said: "The safety of these people is very important if the trial is to go on. It is the responsibility of the Iraqi Government and the US military to provide protection."

Thabit Fahad, a senior lawyer in Baghdad, said the entire judicial system was at risk from such attacks: "A lawyer wants to defend his client even if he is the Devil himself. That is his job and the nature of his profession."

(China Daily November 9, 2005)