The charges in the Saddam trial

DUJAIL MASSACRE
Saddam and seven others charged with ordering and overseeing the killing of more than 140 Shiite men from Dujail after an attack on the presidential motorcade as it passed through the village, 60km north of Baghdad, in July 1982.

INVASION OF KUWAIT
Saddam is accused of violating international law by ordering the invasion of Kuwait in August 1990. A United States-led coalition demanded Iraq's withdrawal and went to war on January 17, 1991, after Saddam refused to comply with several United Nations resolutions.

POLITICAL REPRESSION
Saddam is accused of the brutal suppression of uprisings by majority Shiites in southern Iraq and ethnic Kurds in the north after the Gulf War.

MARSH ARABS
The Iraqi Army, under Saddam's orders, is alleged to have systematically destroyed the livelihood of Iraq's ancient Marsh Arab people, who have inhabited huge marshlands in the southeast of the country.

KURDISH GENOCIDE AND ETHNIC CLEANSING
Iraqi Government forces launched a drive in 1987 and 1988 to reassert Government control over Kurdish areas in the north. The campaign, dubbed "Anfal" or "Spoils of War" included the gassing of the village of Halabja in 1988, when as many as 5000 people were killed.

POLITICAL MURDERS
Saddam and his security forces have been accused of numerous politically motivated murders and other human rights abuses. Evidence has emerged of 270 mass graves across Iraq which are believed to hold the remains of possibly tens of thousands of people, including Shiites, Kurds, and Saddam's political opponents.

- REUTERS