BAGHDAD, Iraq – Saddam Hussein, the leader of a brutal regime for 35 years, will be transferred to Iraqi legal custody today and publicly arraigned Thursday in connection with crimes against the Iraqi people, Iyad Allawi said at his first news conference as prime minister.
It will be Iraqis’ first glimpse of Hussein since he was captured in December and Americans displayed photographs of the former leader bearded, long-haired and looking disoriented. Eleven former top officials of the Baathist regime also are to be arraigned.
Hussein is expected to be arraigned on charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, as well as other misdeeds, according to lawyers involved in the case. He is likely to be tried for the use of chemical weapons in the 1988 attack on the Kurdish town of Halabja; the Anfal campaign of 1988 against the Kurds in the north; crimes related to Iraq’s 1980-88 war with Iran and to the suppression of a Shiite uprising in southern Iraq in 1991, among others.
The new government’s request that the U.S.-led coalition transfer Hussein to Iraqi custody was Allawi’s first official act as head of the government and seemed designed to underscore to Iraqis that the new government, not the old regime, was in control.
Among those slated for arraignment with Hussein are former Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz and Ali Hassan al Majeed, also known as Chemical Ali, said Salem Chalabi, the executive director of the Iraqi Special Tribunal created to handle the trials. Majeed is alleged to have been one of the people responsible for the gassing of the Kurds at Halapja in Northern Iraq in 1988.
The arraignment will be televised and is expected to show Hussein and others in chains as they walk into the courtroom to hear the charges – a dramatic and graphic display of how far from power they have fallen. Once the arraignment is complete, their status will be changed from prisoners of war to criminal detainees under Iraqi law. In general, prisoners of war have fewer rights and aren’t charged with a crime.
Allawi said the question of reinstating Iraq’s death penalty was under discussion, opening up the possibility that Hussein could be executed.
Iraqis greeted Allawi’s announcement with enthusiasm, saying that Hussein ought to suffer for all he put the Iraqi people through.
“A tyrant in the dock – that is unbelievable,” said Sheerwan Hassan, 42, a Kurd. “I and my family are eagerly awaiting the sight of that person being prosecuted. That is the first step toward democracy in Iraq,” he said.
Associated Press
If convicted of war crimes and other charges, Saddam Hussein could be put to death.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
