Salem Chalabi

Salem Chalabi (aka "Sam Challabi") (born 1963, in Baghdad) is an Iraq born, British and American educated lawyer. He was appointed as 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. His appointment, by an order signed by L. Paul Bremer III, the head of the occupation authority, was widely criticized for perceived nepotism (his uncle, Ahmed Chalabi, was critically involved in the US-led war against Iraq and Hussein) and he himself lacked any significant trial experience (he was a corporate securities lawyer). He was ultimately dropped from the Tribunal after an arrest warrant was issued for investigation into his role in the murder of a director-general of the Iraqi Ministry of Finance who was investigating Chalabi family properties acquired in Iraq; the charge was ultimately dismissed citing lack of evidence.

Salem Chalabi was educated in Britain and in the United States. His uncle Ahmed Chalabi was the controversial leader of the Iraqi National Congress and former member of the Iraq Interim Governing Council and a Deputy Prime Minister; he is also "a former banker in Jordan who fled the country in 1989 before he could be arrested in connection with a $200 million financial scandal. He was later tried in his absence and sentenced by a Jordanian court to 22 years in prison on 31 charges of embezzlement, theft, misuse of depositor funds and currency speculation." Salem studied at Bedford School in England and at Yale University (where he was on the Rugby Team and a member of the controversial Rockingham Club), graduating in 1985. In 1993 he received a law degree from the Northwestern University School of Law. He worked for Morgan, Lewis & Bockius in New York and lastly for Clifford Chance in London, in both instances as a corporate lawyer specialising in capital markets. Salem joined the Dubai office of Stephenson Harwood (Middle East) LLP in 2014 as a partner.

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