Manama: A prominent Qatari lawyer said that he was ready to defend Syrian president Basher Al Assad if he stands trial in a court of law.
Najeeb Bin Mohammad Al Nuaimi, a former justice minister, said that he had turned down an offer to defend Egypt’s former president Hosni Mubarak, Qatari Arabic daily Al Watan reported on Wednesday.
The lawyer said that he was the target of two assassination attempts in Baghdad during the trial of Iraq’s former leader Saddam Hussain when he was a member of the defence team.
However, he did not give further details.
The attorney who held the justice portfolio between 1995 and 1997, said that he insisted on not receiving any fees for defending the Iraqi leader who was executed on December 30, 2006, three years after he was arrested.
Al Nuaimi added that he had advised Sudanese President Omar Al Bashir to face the International Criminal Court after it charged him in March 2009 with war crimes over the conflict in Darfur, saying that he was confident the Khartoum leader was innocent.
