Spanish police arrest ‘Saddam’s lawyer’

Spanish police have arrested an Italian lawyer known as the ‘devil’s advocate’ who was on the team that defended hanged Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, the interior ministry and news reports said Tuesday.

The lawyer was held in Palma, capital of the Spanish Mediterranean island of Majorca, on a European arrest warrant issued by Britain, “on charges of embezzlement, fraud, money-laundering and theft,” the ministry said in a statement.

It identified him only by his initials, G.D.S.

But Spanish media named him as Giovanni di Stefano, who helped defend Saddam and some of his cohorts as well as serial killer Charles Manson and British train robber Ronnie Biggs, and has earned the nickname “the devil’s advocate” in the press.He is also a former director of Dundee Football Club of Scotland.