LONDON, 15 October 2005 — One of Britain’s top barristers, Anthony Scrivener QC, could be on his way to Iraq in the next few days to defend ousted former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein against charges of mass murder if “the circumstances are right”, according to the senior clerk at the barrister’s chambers in London.
Scrivener was asked yesterday on behalf of Saddam’s daughter to represent the former dictator in the trial scheduled to start on Oct. 19 at a secret location in Iraq.
British legal sources stress that Scrivener’s involvement could help pre-empt the trial degenerating into a legal farce, and could give it procedural credibility in the eyes of the world. According to human rights lawyer Geoffrey Bindman, “If this (trial) is not to become a mockery, (it is important) that there are proper lawyers and good lawyers on the defense side, who can help to make it a fair process.”
Scrivener, a Queen’s Counsel and former chairman of the Bar Council in England, has a long history of defending high profile and difficult cases.
