The International Bar Association, the Arab Lawyers Union and the Law Society have condemned an attempt by Iraq's Minister for Justice, Abdel Hussein Shandal, to disband the board of the Iraqi Bar Association.

The board, elected in August 2003 in what the International Bar Association says was a fair election process, has also denounced the action and refuses to recognise the planned replacement.


According to an open letter from Kamal Hamdoun Mulla-Alu, the head of the Iraqi Bar Association, the Iraqi minister issued a decree on 19 December 2005 to dissolve the board and put in its place a committee of three lawyers and two judges.


Mr Hamdoun said: 'Such a decree by the Minister of Justice is a blatant violation of the law of the legal profession ... and a flagrant attack on a well-established organisation run by an elected council.' He said the decree 'violates the independence' of the Iraqi bar.


The International Bar Association has also condemned the move as a senseless attack on the separation of powers and legal independence in Iraq.


Mark Ellis, its executive director, said: 'Any attempt to interfere with the legal profession's ability to elect its members would be inconsistent with the guarantees of a free and independent profession.' The International Bar Association has been involved in training judges and lawyers in Iraq in legal independence.


But Mr Ellis is fairly confident that the Iraqi government will have to back down. 'The reactions that emerge from these kinds of attacks are exactly those you don't want to see,' he said. 'It is such a fundamental misstep they can't afford not to correct it. As to the day-to-day struggle, it's going to be the responsibility of the Iraqi lawyers to speak out and I've no doubt they will do so. They're a very strong-willed group.'


The Law Society said it will send a letter to Mr Shandal, asking him to reinstate the council of the Iraqi Bar Association and 'allow its members to elect their own leadership to run the organisation without external interference'.


The Arab Lawyers Union has been more forthright about the minister's actions, and said in an e-mail to its members that it does not recognise the new five-person committee.


'The decision taken by the minister of justice is a flagrant interference by the executive power in the affairs of the Iraqi lawyers,' it said. 'Such haphazard and clumsy behaviour is consistent with the policy of despotism and oppression practised by the interim Iraqi government supported by the occupying forces.'


The union said the root cause of the move was 'the unwillingness of this government to tolerate any voices raised against the occupation and any call for democracy and for the Iraqi peoples' right of self-determination'.


The Gazette attempted to reach the Ministry of Justice in Iraq, and asked Iraq's ambassador to the UK for comment. Neither were forthcoming at the time of going to press.