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.
[3] 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.
[5] Zell, born in the United States, moved with his family to the Jewish settlement of Alon Shevut on the West Bank in 1988, at the start of the first Palestinian uprising, acquiring Israeli nationality.
His Jerusalem based firm, whose staff produced the content of the Iraqi International Law Group's website, cites as one of its main activities assisting Israeli companies to do business abroad.
[5] With the capture of Saddam Hussein on December 13, 2003, an Iraqi Special Tribunal was announced, with Salem placed in charge by an order signed by L. Paul Bremer III, the head of the occupation authority.
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.