Iraq blocks Saddam family bid to fire his lawyers

By Suleiman al-Khalidi

AMMAN, Aug 14 (1Reuters) – The Iraqi tribunal trying Saddam
Hussein on war crimes charges has blocked a bid by his family
to fire his vast team of defense lawyers, saying only Saddam
can make such a move, the family said on Sunday.

Last week a lawyer acting for Saddam’s eldest daughter
Raghd said the family had scrapped the team of more than 2,000
attorneys claiming to be representing Saddam and would build a
new, better-organized defense team.

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 defense 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 defense.
It says they often gave conflicting legal opinions.

More than 2,000 lawyers had volunteered for Saddam’s
defense team, including former U.S. 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 colorful octogenarian who served as French foreign
minister from 1988 to 1993 and acted as executor of Pablo
Picasso’s estate.

FAMILY DEMANDS RIGHT TO RUN Defense

A letter sent by Raghd to the tribunal said the family was
entitled to choose Saddam’s defense team because the ousted
president was not able to make such decisions freely himself.

“The family of the 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 U.S. pressure.

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.

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 your occupying masters allow them,” the letter said,
referring to U.S.-led forces in Iraq.

Raghd also criticized 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 Shi’ite Muslims in the village of Dujail
following a failed assassination attempt in 1982. Officials say
his trial could begin within two months.

If found guilty, he faces the death penalty.