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 defence 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-organised defence 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 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.
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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.
More than 2,000 lawyers had volunteered for Saddam’s defence 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 colourful 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 DEFENCE
A letter sent by Raghd to the tribunal said the family was entitled to choose Saddam’s defence 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 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 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.
