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Federal Iraq: Saddam Trial- Despot could
get death
18.7.2005
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BAGHDAD, Iraq
(AP) - The first criminal case has been filed
against Saddam Hussein, stemming from the 1982
massacre of dozens of Shiite villagers in
retaliation for a failed assassination attempt
against the former leader, the head of an Iraqi
tribunal said Sunday.
The date for the trial of Saddam and three others
will be determined in a few days. If convicted, they
could face the death penalty.
Raid Juhi, chief judge of the Iraq Special Tribunal,
said the preliminary investigation into the July 8,
1982, massacre in Dujail, 50 miles north of Baghdad,
has been completed, and the case was referred to the
courts for trial. |
Former dictator
Saddam Hussein
Photo : AP |
"The date for the trial
will be determined within the few coming days by the
gentlemen in the criminal court," Juhi said.
The announcement roughly corresponds to an
indictment in the U.S. legal system, legal officials
said. However, Saddam and the others will be
considered "charged" when they appear in court.
The court now has 45 days to announce a start date
for the trial.
Saddam's co-defendants in the case are Barazan
Ibrahim, intelligence chief at the time and Saddam's
half brother; former Vice President Taha Yassin
Ramadan; and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, at the time a
Baath party official in Dujail.
Iraqi officials previously have announced the
imminent start of Saddam's trial before, only to
have the proceedings delayed. The Americans
privately have urged caution about rushing into a
trial, saying Iraq must develop a judicial system
first.
U.S. officials say there also are concerns that a
trial could interfere with the process of writing a
constitution and inflame sectarian tension. The
Iraqi government must finish a draft by mid-August
so it can hold a referendum on the charter ahead of
December elections for a full-term government.
Saddam, 68, has been jailed under American control
at a U.S. military detention complex near the
Baghdad airport since his December 2003 capture near
his hometown, Tikrit.
The tribunal will try the former dictator on war
crimes charges stemming from 14 incidents, according
to a list obtained by The Associated Press. Those
incidents include the 1987-88 campaign to drive
Iraqi Kurds from wide areas of the north and the
1991 suppression of a Shiite revolt in the south
after U.S.-led forces removed Iraqi invaders from
Kuwait.
Saddam also is being investigated for a 1988
chemical weapons attack on the Kurdish town of
Halabja that killed an estimated 5,000 people and
the execution of 8,000 members of the Barzani tribe,
a powerful Kurdish clan to which the current
Kurdistan Democratic Party leader, Massoud Barzani,
belongs.
AP
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