KEY POINTS:
Guilty
Dujail
In Dujail, a Shiite farming village 70km north of Baghdad, local youths tried unsuccessfully to assassinate Saddam in 1982 as his motorcade passed by. He ordered his men to hunt down, torture and kill 148 villagers. It was for this conviction that he was
hanged with two others, Barzan Ibrahim Hassan Tikriti, one of his half-brothers and a former director of the feared Mukhabarat security service, and Awad Ahmed Bandar, former chief judge of the Revolutionary Court and deputy head of Saddam's office.
Charged
Anfal
Iraqi forces launched a drive in 1987 and 1988 to reassert control over Kurdish areas in the north. The campaign, dubbed "Anfal" (spoils of war), saw villages flattened, farming destroyed and inhabitants forcibly removed. Estimates of deaths range from tens of thousands to over 100,000. Saddam's cousin General Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as "Chemical Ali", is accused of carrying out the worst of the atrocities. The trial started in August and will continue for Majid and five co-defendants, although the charges against Saddam will of course lapse.
Cases that never came to court
* Halabja
The chemical attack on the village of Halabja in March 1988 killed 5000 people. It is not seen as part of Anfal.
* Invasion of Kuwait
Saddam is accused of violating international law by ordering the invasion in August 1990.
* Marsh Arabs
Saddam's army is alleged to have systematically destroyed the livelihood of Iraq's Marsh Arabs, who have inhabited southeastern marshlands at the confluence of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers for nearly 5000 years. Saddam targeted them early in his rule when he ordered their habitat drained.
Political Killings
Saddam and his security forces were accused of numerous political killings, including the execution of five Shiite religious leaders in 1974, the murder of thousands of members of the Kurdish Barzani clan in 1983 and the assassination of political opponents.
Political Repression
Saddam was accused of brutally suppressing uprisings by majority Shiites in southern Iraq and ethnic Kurds in the north. Scores of mass graves south of Baghdad are said to contain Shiites. Hundreds of thousands of Kurds fled to Iran and Turkey. There are Kurdish mass graves in the north and in deserted areas of the south.
- REUTERS
