Saddam Hussein's personal belongings were looted and vandalised within hours of his execution, according to members of his defence team.
An exclusive report in the UAE newspaper, Emirates Today, quotes the lawyers as saying members of
the Iraqi government and Shia militia loyal to Muqtada Al Sadr, broke into Saddam's cell and "vandalised his belongings and burnt a copy of the Quran," which the former Iraqi president used to read.
The head of the Jordan Bar Association, Saleh Armouti, and a member of Saddam's defence team, said a number of personal letters and private notes have gone missing.
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Another defence lawyer for the late deposed leader has charged that Shia groups burnt Saddam Hussein's Quran. Ziad Najdawi said, "One of the defence team in Baghdad went to take Saddam's Quran but he was told by the militia groups that they burnt it."
The lawyers are also concerned about Saddam's notes, which they say he spent the last two years writing.
They say the notes are sensitive and cover his thoughts on political issues, particularly in relation to his time as president of Iraq. "We do not know what happened to them, but they are important parts of the region's history that everybody deserves to read," Najdawi told Emirates Today.