Justice calls for "devil's advocate" Giovanni di Stefano

If there was ever a global bad guy's lawyer, Giovanni di Stefano would be it. The 55-year-old Italian-born flamboyant figure has become one of the most controversial attorneys in recent years. A self-confessed admirer of Osama bin Laden, Di Stefano gained international news prominence when he joined the legal teams of Saddam Hussein and Slobodan Milosevic.

In recent months, he has gained even more notoriety when he tried to get former Prime Minister Tony Blair indicted for Iraqi war crimes.

Now it is Di Stefano who may find himself in the dock of a London courtroom, facing 18 counts of fraud, theft and money-laundering charges. On Monday, Spanish police arrested him in Palma de Mallorca after a warrant was issued by British authorities. The high-profile lawyer said that the charges were "politically motivated."

"We do not defend Snow White - unless she is with the seven perverts"

"It's best to avoid me, as otherwise it means you need my help"

At the time of his arrest, Di Stefano fell ill at the police station and was admitted to the Son Espases hospital where he underwent surgery on Tuesday for an undisclosed condition. It is not known when he will be extradited to Britain. The Scottish Sun newspaper reported on Thursday that the lawyer was posting notices on the internet that he was recovering from a life-saving cancer operation.

"I am a lawyer for important people," he told police at the time of his arrest at his home in Palma de Mallorca.

According to investigation sources, he lived in a "very normal" apartment in the high-scale Son Vida neighborhood where sports figures and former international political leaders also own homes.

Known as the "devil's advocate," Di Stefano has not only represented the most hated leaders in the world but also some of the most notorious criminals in Britain, including serial killer Harold Shipman, Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs and Jeremy Bamber, who murdered five members of his family at a farm in Tolleshunt D'Arcy, Essex in 1985 so he could collect an inheritance. The infamous "Black Widow," Linda Calvey - the ex-gangsters' moll who was once the longest-serving female inmate in the UK - was another client.

His unsavory roster of litigants as well as his off-the-cuff remarks are what have brought him so much media attention over the years. In a 2002 interview, The Guardian asked Di Stefano why he always seemed to represent bad guys.

"Yes, I can't argue with that," he said. "Well, we do not defend Snow White. Snow White has committed no offense, unless she is with the seven perverts. In which case, she will need our services. So if you do not commit a crime, or unless you enter some business, you will never come across me. No reason why you should. In fact, it's best to avoid me, as otherwise it means you need my help."

Saddam and Milosevic were his friends, he use to proudly boast.

"Well, I don't have coffee with him or talk about girls or football, but I have had the honor of meeting his excellency President Saddam Hussein several times, and I find that he is an extremely logical and hard-working man. That's the important thing - he's hard working," he told The Guardian.

Di Stefano was born in southern Italy and immigrated with his parents to England when he was six years old. He studied law in the UK and later opened his law office in Rome.

Not all of the cases he has taken on were lost causes. The lawyer has had success in getting sentences overturned in high-profile cases in Britain, including that of real-estate magnate Nicholas van Hoogstraten who had been convicted in 2002 of killing a business rival.

In recent months, Di Stefano has been working on appeals for the release of former Panamanian dictator Manuel Antonio Noriega, who is serving time in a French prison, and Charles Manson, the mastermind behind the 1969 Tate-LaBianca murders in California. Just days before his arrest, the lawyer filed an appeal with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights alleging that Manson's constitutional rights were violated at his trial.

Di Stefano has had his share of legal problems. In 1984, he was arrested and convicted on fraud charges and served a five-year sentence.

After his release he traveled to New Zealand in search of business investment opportunities but was deported for not disclosing that he had been convicted of a crime. In 1991, he moved to Yugoslavia and befriended Milosevic, who reportedly gave him a passport. The following year he was deported from the United States where he was trying to bid to purchase MGM Studios after immigration authorities discovered he had also concealed his fraud conviction.

Di Stefano was rearrested again in Rome in 1999 on a British warrant for fraud in the bankruptcy of a string of hotels eight years earlier. His bust came about at the same time he was making a bid for Dundee FC soccer club - a deal that eventually fell through. He served 18 months in prison until a judge threw the case out after deciding that the statute of limitations had run out.