IRAQ: Saddam Hussein's family has scrapped the international team of attorneys claiming to represent him and will pick a new set of heavyweight lawyers to defend him against war crimes charges, the family's lawyer said.
"There are too many people in the world who are claiming they are defending the president without the family's knowledge and we don't know who authorised them," said Abdel Haq Alani, the legal consultant of Raghd, Saddam's eldest daughter who is authorised to act on behalf of the ousted leader's family.
Mr Alani said Saddam's family had revoked any right of attorney previously issued to any lawyers to represent Saddam, and had chosen Iraqi lawyer Khalil Dulaimi as the "only authorised lawyer at this moment".
Mr Alani said the move was prompted by family concerns that Saddam's defence could be scuppered by conflicting legal opinions and bickering among the hundreds of international lawyers claiming to represent him.
He said Saddam's family had been irked by press statements from Arab and western lawyers and propagandists who claimed to speak on behalf of the ousted leader, including high-profile lawyers from France, Britain and the US. "They have more than one counsel in every country claiming to represent him. This can lead to conflicting legal opinion that may damage the interest of the client."
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 Gadafy.
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.
"There was never any proper legal team. It was a media hype more than anything else," Mr Alani said.
So far, Saddam has been formally charged in only one case - the killing of Shia Muslims in the village of Dujail following a failed assassination attempt in 1982.
A date for that trial is expected soon. If found guilty, Saddam could be executed. - (Reuters)