[5] In late 2005 (October), Khamal Hamdoon Mulla Allawi was president of the association when Saadoun Sughaiyer al-Janabi, a lawyer participating in the defence of one of Saddam Hussein's co-accused, was assassinated.
The "chairman"[7] of the Iraqi Bar Association, Dheyaa al-Saadi, criticised this, arguing that the council had been created as the result of "free and fair elections".
He said that the association included members of "divergent political factions and groups" and should "remain a symbol of Iraq's unity" rather than being "politicized".
He claimed that the association was one of the "few" organisations in Iraq that was defending "civil and political rights and [guaranteeing] the rule of law".
[9] Dheya al-Saadi was apparently still president of the Iraqi Bar Association[4] when in December 2008 he led a team of lawyers to defend Muntadhar al-Zaidi, an Iraqi broadcast journalist working for al-Baghdadia TV who threw his shoes at U.S. president George W. Bush, stating that he did it on behalf of "the widows and orphans and all those killed in Iraq".