Saddam faces Iraqi tribunal

BAGHDAD - Saddam Hussein was last night handed over to Iraqi justice, two days after Iraq formally regained sovereign powers from United States and British occupiers.

The US military will still guard him and 11 other top members of his deposed government who are due to appear before Iraqi judges tomorrow to be charged with crimes against humanity.

Saddam would be charged with crimes against humanity for a 1988 massacre of Kurds, the 1990 invasion of Kuwait and the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, said Salem Chalabi, a lawyer leading the work of a tribunal that will try the former dictator.

Iraq's new national security adviser, Mouwafak al-Rubaie, said Saddam's trial would be fair, broadcast live on television and radio and be the "trial of the century".

The Iraqi Special Tribunal would be able to impose the death penalty.

Al-Rubaie said that after the handover, an Iraqi judge would read to Saddam the accusations against him, "issue an arrest warrant and he will be handcuffed again and taken away under Iraqi legal custody".

Al-Rubaie noted that the Coalition Provisional Authority had suspended the use of the death penalty.

"Now we are back, an independent sovereign country, I think we will need to re-impose that penalty again," he told the BBC.

Ali Hassan al-Majid, also known as "Chemical Ali", former Vice-President Taha Yassin Ramadan and former Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz are among 11 of Saddam's lieutenants to face the tribunal tomorrow.

Those former officials and others among the 55 most wanted Iraqis on a US list are seen as witnesses who could help prove a chain of command linking Saddam to crimes against humanity.

Among others who were expected to be handed over were Barzan Ibrahim Hasan al-Tikriti, Saddam's half-brother and adviser; Abid Hamid Mahmud al-Tikriti, his secretary; Sabawi Ibrahim, Saddam's maternal half-brother; Watban Ibrahim Hasan al-Tikriti, Saddam's half-brother and adviser; and Aziz Salih Numan, Baath Party regional commander and head of the party militia.

Al-Rubaie said other high-value detainees depicted in the US military's "deck of cards" would be "handled in batches" once arrest warrants and charges were prepared.

Meanwhile, the issue of immunity from prosecution for coalition forces in Iraq was a "hot political potato" still under discussion, he said.

"We are not going to allow a blanket immunity to be given to every foreigner in this country to do whatever they like ... without being accountable to the Iraqi legal system.

"We have to work out these details with our partners through mutual understanding; through the spirit of partnership."

French lawyer Emmanuel Ludot, one of a 20-strong legal team appointed by Saddam's wife to represent him, said the former President would refuse to acknowledge any court or any judge.

"It will be a court of vengeance, a settling of scores," Ludot told France Info radio, saying any judge sitting in the court would be under pressure to find Saddam guilty.

Ludot said he expected Saddam to say that last year's US-led war was illegal.

Saddam, accused by Iraqis of ordering the killing and torture of thousands of people during 35 years of Baathist rule, has been held as a prisoner of war since American troops found him hiding in a hole near his hometown of Tikrit in December.

Lawyer Chalabi said Saddam was expected to go on trial next year, but the trial of other suspects could begin earlier.

He also said Iraq had launched a witness-protection programme to encourage Iraqis to come forward to testify against the suspects, including Saddam.

Government offices were shut yesterday for a new national holiday declared to mark the transfer of sovereignty.

Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's new interim Government wants to show ordinary Iraqis that the 14-month occupation is really over, while also proving it can curb violence still blighting the country.

Insurgents fired six to 10 mortar rounds that landed north of Baghdad international airport yesterday, wounding six coalition soldiers, a US military spokesman said.

Three US Marines were killed by a roadside bomb in Baghdad on Wednesday, raising to 632 the number of American soldiers killed in action since the invasion in March last year.

Ambassadors from three nations in the coalition force - the United States, Australia and Denmark - presented their credentials to the new Government yesterday, formally resuming diplomatic ties.

John Negroponte, the new US ambassador, who was previously Washington's envoy to the United Nations, said he looked forward to working with the Iraqi Government.

In Turkey, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul confirmed the release of three hostages who had been seized three weeks ago by an Islamic militant group.

They had been threatened with beheading if Turkish firms continued to work in Iraq.

Charge list

The charges investigators expect to bring against Saddam include:

* 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.

* The 1963 killing of 5000 members of the Barzani clan, to which Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani belongs.

* Iraq's 1990 invasion of its Gulf Arab neighbour Kuwait.

* Crimes related to Iraq's 1980-88 war with neighbouring Iran.

* Crimes related to Saddam's bloody suppression of a Shiite uprising in southern Iraq after US-led forces drove Iraqi troops out of Kuwait.

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq