Shake-Up In Saddam's Legal Team

Family Dissolves Jordan-Based Team, Appoints Khalil Sole Counsel

(AP) 
Monday's statement left the door open for future appointments.

"Any lawyer who would later be invited by the family to join the defense committee will be explicitly authorized 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 canceled."

Saddam's legal team included 1,500 volunteers — mainly Arabs — and at least 22 lead lawyers from several countries including the United States, France, Jordan, Iraq and Libya. Prominent among them was Libyan law professor Aicha Moammar Gadhafi, daughter of the Libyan leader, and Clark.

No lawyer was at Saddam's side when he was arraigned 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 defense 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.