Qatari lawyer says ready to defend embattled President Assad in court

A Qatari lawyer, Najeeb Bin Mohammad Al-Nuaimi, said that he was ready to defend Syrian President Bashar al-Assad if the embattled leader was summoned to stand in trial, a newspaper reported Wednesday.

Nuaimi, who is also Qatar’s former justice minister, has experience in defending leaders accused of crimes against their people.

He was a member of the defense team for the late Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and was the target of two assassination attempts in Baghdad during Hussain’s trial in 2006.

When defending the Iraqi strongman, Nuaimi insisted on not receiving any payment.
Hussain was executed on December 30, 2006, three years after his arrest, along with other seven defendants for the murder of 148 Shiites in Dujail in 1982.

Nuaimi, however, turned down an offer to defend Egypt’s former president Hosni Mubarak. The toppled Egyptian leader was jailed for life in June for killing 850 demonstrators during Egypt’s revolution early this year.

The Qatari lawyer believes that Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir, who was indicted in 2009 by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur, is innocent. He advised Bashir to face charges against him.