Salem Chalabi

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Salem J. Chalabi (1963, Baghdad) is an Iraqi-American lawyer. He was the first General Director of the Iraqi Special Tribunal set up in 2003 to try Saddam Hussein and other members of his regime for crimes against humanity.

Salem grew up in the United States after his family fled Iraq in 1968. Ahmed Chalabi, the controversial leader of the Iraqi National Congress and former member of the Iraq Interim Governing Council, is his uncle. Salem studied at Yale University graduating in 1985 and received a law degree from the Northwestern University School of Law in 1994. He worked for Clifford Chance in London specialising in capital-markets.

Returning to Iraq in April 2003 he founded the Iraqi International Law Group with Marc Zell, which claims to be "the first international law firm in Iraq" aiming to "to provide a last mile connection between foreign capital, initiative, technology, experience and know-how and the organizations, enterprises, institutions and entrepreneurs in Iraq eager to rebuild the country." Salem also worked for the Iraq Interim Governing Council as a legal adviser and was one of the ten member committee (along with Mohsen Abdel Hamid) that wrote the first drafts of the Law of Administration for the State of Iraq for the Transitional Period.

[edit] Iraqi special tribunal

With the capture of Saddam Hussein in December 13, 2003, an Iraqi Special Tribunal was announced, with Salem appointed by the Coalition Provisional Authority as its General Director. As such, Salem was responsible for picking the Judges and Prosecutors and then arranging for them to visit the Slobodan Milošević' tribunal at the Hague.

However on August 8, 2004, while Salem was in London, a warrant was issued in Iraq for his arrest, for his alleged involvement in the May 28, 2004 death of Haithem Fadhil, director-general of the Iraqi Ministry of Finance. At the same time, a warrant was issued for his uncle Ahmed Chalabi on money counterfeiting charges, however those charges were dropped in late September 2004, with Judge Zuhair al-Maliki citing lack of evidence. The charges against Salem Chalabi were dropped in December 2004, citing lack of evidence.

On September 7, 2004 it was reported that Chalabi had been removed or was about to be removed from his post as head of the tribunal. On September 19 the New York Times quoted Iraqi interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi as saying that he had received Salem's resignation. [1]

[edit] External links

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