JURIST - Hotline: Iraqi defense lawyers no longer protected by US

Giovanni Di Stefano [lawyer for Ali Hassan al-Majid, dubbed "Chemical Ali", Studio Legale Internazionale, Rome]: "Al-Majid and 14 other former Saddam Hussein-era officials are on trial for their role in the government's violent response to the uprising, during which tens of thousands of civilians were killed. They are charged with crimes against humanity and will face the death penalty. The sentence of death passed upon Mr Al Majid for the conviction in what is known as the 'Anfal' trial cannot be implimented because of the time restraints during Ramadan.

The strategy of the Iraqi Government is thus to continue with the ongoing trial at the Iraqi High Tribunal, commute the death sentence to one of life imprisonment for the 'Anfal' conviction and to thus use the current trial to impose the sentence of death that could not be carried out owing to Ramadan.

The current trial is carried out without the defendants having appropriate lawyers of choice. The US Military has decided that Iraqi Lawyers will no longer be able to avail themselves of the security from the US Military/US Marshalls on arrival at Baghdad International Airport leaving the security arrangements with the Iraqi Ministry of Interior. Frankly, that is like allowing Charles Manson to babysit your teenage girl. Already many Iraqi Lawyers have endured murder, assaults, attacks, insults, threats, intimidation and without the necessary protection from the US Military the ongoing trials are yet continuing examples of a farce. The Iraqi Prosecutor has become a Persecutor and those facing trial are facing nothing short of a 'star chamber' without rights and with a hanging judge worse than Judge Jeffreys.

This causes me considerable concern for the clients, the trials, and for justice per se.

I am calling upon the American Bar Association and the International Bar to levy pressure upon the US State and Defence Department to restore security to my colleagues without which their attendance at trial and in fact their presence in Baghdad make them living targets and unable to uphold the oath they took for the cause of justice."