Saddam's family dissolves legal team
The family of the former Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein, has said it has dissolved his Jordan-based legal team, cancelling the power of attorney it had given to international lawyers in a move seen as reorganising Saddam’s legal counsel ahead of his upcoming trial.
In an “urgent” statement, Saddam’s family said it has appointed Khalil Dulaimi as the “one and sole legal counsel.” Dulaimi was part of the Jordan-based legal team for the past year and attended some of Saddam’s initial court hearings in Baghdad.
The family said it was “obliged to rearrange the legal defence campaign given the unique nature of the case,” in the statement signed by Saddam’s eldest daughter Raghad. It did not elaborate.
A person close to the family with intimate knowledge of the case said Raghad and other family members were upset by statements issued by various lawyers and wanted only one legal voice to speak on Saddam’s behalf.
The family did not say what statements had upset its members, but Saddam’s former chief lawyer Jordanian Ziad al-Khasawneh, who resigned on July 7, claimed members of the legal team, especially Americans like former US attorney general Ramsey Clark, were critical of his statements rebuking the American occupation of Iraq and declaring the resistance as “legitimate.” He claimed Clark advised Raghad and other members of Saddam’s family that such statements hurt Saddam’s defence.
The source added that the many subsequent powers of attorney issued by Saddam’s legal team to other Arab and international lawyers also confused the family.
The source dismissed speculation that the legal team may in the future comprise mainly of foreign lawyers. When he resigned, al-Khasawneh accused the family of trying to give foreign lawyers, mainly Americans, total control of the defence team, and sideline the Arabs.
Today’s statement left the door open for future appointments.
“Any lawyer who would later be invited by the family to join the defence committee will be explicitly authorised by the family to make statements in due time,” the family’s statement said, adding “all powers of legal representation made by any member of the family or by (Saddam’s legal team) to any lawyer or any other person are now deemed cancelled.”
Saddam’s legal team included 1,500 volunteers – mainly Arabs – and at least 22 lead lawyers from several countries including the US, France, Jordan, Iraq and Libya. Prominent among them was Libyan law professor Aicha Muammar Gadafi, daughter of the Libyan leader, and Clark.
No lawyer was at Saddam’s side when he was charged in July 2004 in Baghdad on broad charges that include killing rival politicians over a 30 year period; gassing Kurds in Halabja in 1988; invading Kuwait in 1990; and suppressing Kurdish and Shiite uprisings in 1991.
But the Iraqi Special Tribunal has allowed Dulaimi, the Iraqi member of the defence team, to meet Saddam at least four times this year, including twice when Saddam was being questioned.
Saddam is expected to stand trial in September in the first of several anticipated trials for the former leader and his chief lieutenants.
