The vice chairman of Premier League Sheffield United is a lawyer who demanded the beheading and flogging of two British nurses in Saudi Arabia, MailOnline can reveal.
Joseph Giansiracusa is the right-hand man of Saudi Royal Prince Abdullah bin Mosaad bin Abdulaziz Al Saud who controversially gained control of the club in September 2019 after a High Court ruling.
The legal battle continues with the club's former owner Kevin McCabe who has put £100m into the club over past 20 years.
McCabe had sold a 50 per cent share for £1 to the Saudi Prince Abdullah. In return Prince Abdullah agreed to invest £10m over three years. The two men then signed an investors agreement in August 2013.
United were a League One team who were haemorrhaging money but then all changed with the appointment of Chris Wilder as Manager in May 2016.
Two seasons later Sheffield United were back in the Premier League and the TV money was rolling in.
However under a clause in the agreement, now disputed by McCabe, he was forced to sell his 50 per cent share for £5m in a club now valued at £104m.
It has now come to light that Mr Giansiracusa represented the brother of murdered Australian nurse Yvonne Gilford against Britons Lucille McLauchlan and Deborah Parry in the controversial 1997 trial.
Former Sheffield United director Jim Phipps also acted for Yvonne's brother, Frank Gilford.
Both Giansiracua and Phipps were employed by a Saudi based law firm, Jones Day.
The lawyers demanded the death penalty for the accused nurses, Lucille McLauchlan and Deborah Parry who were found guilty of the crime.
However legal and forensic experts from all over the world said the proceedings were a farce and that the nurse had been threatened with rape and beatings if they didn't sign a confession.
Then Prime Minister Tony Blair and Foreign Secretary Robin Cook personally made a plea for clemency with Saudi's ruler, King Saud.
For months Giansiracusa and Phipps aggressively pushed for the death sentence, saying Yvonne's brother Frank was in favour of it.
Italian-born Giansiracusa said 'He (Frank) has not changed his position. He is demanding the death penalty in the event of a conviction.'
The lawyers said Mr Gilford took very seriously the decision he had to make, since the fate of the nurses was in his hands if they were convicted.
Phipps said: 'He thinks about this every day, but the thought of the brutal way his sister was murdered also weighs heavily on him.'
During the case Parry's brother-in-law Jonathon Ashbee said the Saudi based lawyers were 'Dogged in pursuit of the death penalty.'
He later added: 'Phipps' behaviour has been a disgrace. He is a disgrace to his profession and a disgrace to himself.'
Both lawyers are right-hand men to new Sheffield United owner, Phipps resigned as co-chairman in 2016.
The two Saudi lawyers' part in the nurses trial never come to light as their client Prince Abdullah wrested control of the club.
Lucille McLauchlan was sentenced to eight years and 500 lashes for her part in the death of Yvonne Gilford.
She died in 2014 after suffering a brain hermorrhage.
Parry still works as a nurse in Hampshire. She was sentenced to beheading after being found guilty of the murder.
All three nurses had worked at the King Fahd Military Medical Complex in Dhahan.
The pair were eventually given a royal pardon after Frank Gilford agreed to accept $1.2m so-called 'blood money.'
Following subsequent convictions for theft and fraud in Tayside, McLauchlan was struck off the nursing register by the UK Central Council for Nursing.
Last night Mr Phipps said he was only doing his job as a lawyer, which sometimes involves 'unpleasant business'.
He told MailOnline from his home in Utah, USA: 'During the course of the trial, I recall that counsel for Ms Parry and Ms McLaughlin publicly criticised my handling of the matter in the terms you use.
'I recall only doing my job as a lawyer. As you may appreciate, sometimes being a lawyer means being involved in unpleasant business, as this case surely was.
'A fellow expatriate had been murdered in her apartment, stabbed in every vital organ. If I recall correctly, the victim was stabbed over 13 times.
'The victim's family wanted to see justice done. As counsel, I sought to help them accomplish that purpose.'
Sheffield United and Mr Giansiracusa declined to comment.