You have commented 339 times on Rantburg.

Your Name
Your e-mail (optional)
Website (optional)
My Original Nic        Pic-a-Nic        Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Bold Italic Underline Strike Bullet Blockquote Small Big Link Squish Foto Photo
Submit your comments on this article
Iraq-Jordan
Iraq blocks Saddam family bid to fire his lawyers
2005-08-15
AMMAN - The Iraqi tribunal trying Saddam Hussein on war crimes charges has blocked a bid by his family to fire his vast team of defence lawyers, saying only Saddam can make such a move, the family said on Sunday.
Lance Ito, call your office.
Last week a lawyer acting for Saddam’s eldest daughter Raghad said the family had scrapped the team of more than 2,000 attorneys claiming to be representing Saddam and would build a new, better-organised defence team.
Organizing a team of 2,000 lawyers can be such a challenge ...
But the Iraqi Special Tribunal, the court set up to try the former president and other senior members of his regime, blocked the family’s effort to shake up the defence team. “We want to clarify some issues relating to the request to revoke all powers of attorney. We are very surprised by such unlawful acts. The exclusive right to empower any lawyer or to cancel any power of attorney is for defendant Saddam Hussein,” said a letter sent by the tribunal and obtained by Reuters.

Saddam’s family says many of the lawyers claiming to represent him were never formally appointed and are more interested in self-promotion than mounting a serious defence. It says they often gave conflicting legal opinions.
At least 2,000 different opinions, many times more.
More than 2,000 lawyers had volunteered for Saddam’s defence team, including former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark and a daughter of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. Others who said they were on the team included Anglo-Italian lawyer Giovanni di Stefano who once worked on behalf of former Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic, and Roland Dumas, a colourful octogenarian who served as French foreign minister from 1988 to 1993 and acted as executor of Pablo Picasso’s estate.

A letter sent by Raghad to the tribunal said the family was entitled to choose Saddam’s defence team because the ousted dictator president was not able to make such decisions freely himself. “The family of the dictator president is free to choose whoever it wants to defend him and to remove whoever it wants for as long as he is denied freedom of choice,” Raghd’s letter said.

Sources close to the family said they hoped the tribunal would change its position, possibly under US pressure.
Keep hoping.
The family demanded the presence of newly recruited lawyers alongside Khalil Dulaimi, the Iraqi lawyer who attends Saddam’s court hearings, to ensure Saddam had adequate legal representation for a fair trial.

Raghd said legal advice the family was getting from senior British lawyers whose identity has been kept confidential was to boycott the tribunal or any committee interrogating Saddam until her father was given access to heavyweight lawyers from abroad.
Namely, a group of 'senior British lawyers'.
The new team was ready to come to Baghdad as soon as the Iraqi special court gave them permission, Raghd said. “We all able and willing to send legal specialists as soon as the legitimate tribunal your occupying masters allow them,” the letter said, referring to US-led forces in Iraq.

Raghd also criticised the tribunal for preventing her family from seeing Saddam, who aside from seeing a lawyer is isolated from the rest of the world. The tribunal denies that Saddam has had his rights infringed. So far Saddam has been formally charged in only one case the killing of Shias in the village of Dujail following a failed assassination attempt in 1982. Officials say his trial could begin within two months.

If when found guilty, he will get faces the death penalty.
Posted by:Steve White

#4  Hope Saddass's counsel got a big nonrefundable retainer up front.
Posted by: MunkarKat   2005-08-15 08:37  

#3  I just watched that last night, strangely. When Woody Allen is found guilty, the judge takes off his glasses and stomps on them.
Posted by: gromky   2005-08-15 08:25  

#2  Verlaine -

I need cinematic trivia help -- was it "Take The Money And Run" by Woody Allen wherein the jury foreman stood and said "you honor, we find the defendant incredbly guilty"?

Actually, it was 'The Producers' - and what Mel Brooks could do with this...

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski   2005-08-15 07:02  

#1  Look for this boring melodrama to be resolved by a publicized meeting of SH with his chief lawyer and Tribunal judges, wherein the defendant is asked his wishes -- which always govern this matter.

I need cinematic trivia help -- was it "Take The Money And Run" by Woody Allen wherein the jury foreman stood and said "you honor, we find the defendant incredbly guilty"? That's the scene I keep seeing in my mind when considering the forthcoming trials.
Posted by: Verlaine in Iraq   2005-08-15 04:32  

00:00