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Saddam's in-laws fight for justice from their mansions

From the marble mansions of Baghdad, Saddam Hussein's in-laws are leading the world's least likely human rights organisation, as families of the coalition's 55 most wanted men band together to appeal for fair treatment for them.

Many of the coalition's top targets were either captured or negotiated their surrender in April and May, immediately after the war. Since then they have not been allowed to see their families or their lawyers and no charges have been brought.

For families whose very word once meant life and death for ordinary Iraqis, this new impotence has come as an outrage.

Where's my violin?

For many Iraqis, however, any treatment short of a slow painful death is too good for the stalwarts of the former regime.

"These relatives of Saddam are monsters," said Assad Majid, from central Baghdad. "They stole businesses and raped girls. We were always afraid they would take my younger sister. There was no justice then but jungle law.

"If they accused you, maybe you could bribe them. If not, there were daily beatings and executions."

The point is not lost on Saef Fadil Mahmoud, the son of Fadil Mahmud Gharib, a Ba'ath Party regional command chairman and No 47 on the coalition's most-wanted list.

"At least with the Americans I know I will see my father again, that he will not simply disappear," he said, pointing to a photograph of him on the wall of his comfortable Baghdad sitting room.

Too bad. In a rational world they be gracing a telephone pole at the end of a rope.