Hussein currently has only one court-assigned lawyer, Khalil Dulaimi. Curtis FJ Doebbler is unofficially representing Hussein pro bono.

Doebbler tells Canada AM the list of legal violations against Hussein is a long one. But he is most upset by the fact that Hussein didn't have the right to choose his own legal representation.

'That is a point we have made repeatedly," Doebbler said from Washington.

Saddam Hussein faces the death penalty. (AP Photo/Iraqi Special Tribunal)

"It is true that I am willing to represent him and it is true that there are other much more senior lawyers than myself that have expressed themselves as being willing to represent him. But to be able to represent an individual you must be chosen by that individual.

"We do not believe there can a fair trial in these circumstances."

Hussein and seven other members of his toppled regime are due to begin trial in the Iraq Special Tribunal on Oct. 19. They are charged with ordering a massacre of 143 people in Dujail, a town north of Baghdad, in 1982 after a failed assassination attempt against the ousted leader.

If convicted, Hussein could be sentenced to death.

The former Iraqi leader has been in American custody at an undisclosed site in Baghdad since his capture in December 2003, eight months after his regime was overthrown by U.S. forces.

The trial starting next month is expected to be the first of about a dozen for alleged crimes committed by his regime, including the gassing of Kurds in Halabja and the 1991 suppression of a Shiite uprising in the south.

Doebbler questions the legality of the whole trial. He believes the invasion of Iraq in the first place was illegal and says that a court formed under an illegal occupation is considered invalid under international law.

"We start with an illegal situation and now they have violated almost every one of the due process rights of the president. They have not allowed him the most basic of those rights: the right to legal representation," he says, adding that the trial is "merely an attempt to just fulfill a political objective."

Hussein's legal team has called for Hussein's trial to be moved to either an international tribunal or out of Iraq, arguing that neither they nor their client are safe in Iraq. They have also complained that in the almost two years since their client's arrest, they have not had adequate access to their client.

Doebbler says most of their complaints have fallen on deaf ears. So they are now focusing on the trial ahead.

"What can be done when a military force prevents lawyers from getting access to an individual?

"Lawyers have limited ability. We don't have military divisions that we can call in and go there and say, 'Surround the court, and ensure a person's due process.' We rely on governments to respect that. And I would suggest that we, as citizens of Canada and the United States, rely on our governments to respect the rule of law."