BAGHDAD - Saddam Hussein spent a ninth day without food on Sunday, the U.S. military said, continuing a hunger strike to demand better protection for defence lawyers after a third advocate was killed in Baghdad last month. “There’s no change,” said Lieutenant Colonel Keir-Kevin Curry, a spokesman for U.S. military detention operations in Iraq. “Despite their refusal to eat, they’re still deemed to be in good health.”
The 69-year-old former president and three co-defendants, whose trial for crimes against humanity resumes in a week, have been refusing food since eating dinner on the evening of July 7, the military says. Saddam has been drinking sweet coffee and other liquids, Curry said.
Ah, the Cindy Sheehan 'fast'. | The military has not identified the three other hunger strikers. Three senior Baath party followers are on trial with Saddam, along with four minor party officials. |