Saddam to go on trial Oct. 19, faces hanging (Reuters) Updated: 2005-09-05 06:56
BAGHDAD - Ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein will go on trial on a charge of
mass killing on October 19, Iraq's government spokesman confirmed on Sunday,
raising the possibility that he could soon be hanged. Reuters reported.
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Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein is seen in this photo released
by the Iraqi Special Tribunal, showing Hussein having a meeting with Judge
Munir Haddad at an initial appearance for crimes against Shiite Faili
Kurds, Thursday, July 21, 2005, in Baghdad, Iraq.
[Reuters] | "There is a date set for October 19,"
Laith Kubba told a news conference, adding that several of Saddam's associates,
including one of his half-brothers, would face trial with him.
"They will be tried for the execution of 143 citizens."
Kubba was referring to reprisals for an assassination attempt on Saddam in
the Shi'ite Muslim village of Dujail in 1982, after which over 140 men from the
village were killed.
Iraq's Shi'ite-led government has reintroduced the death penalty after it was
suspended following the U.S. invasion in March 2003. On Thursday, three
convicted criminals were hanged, the first since the suspension was lifted.
Saddam faces execution if found guilty.
Stressing that he was voicing a personal opinion, Kubba said that if Saddam
were convicted for the Dujail killings, trials for other crimes might be shelved
and the sentence carried out quickly. He gave no estimate of the length of the
trial.
The trial will follow swiftly after a referendum on a new constitution for
the post-Saddam era, due by October 15. The draft text is already highly
divisive between Iraq's three main communities, Sunni and Shi'ite Arabs and
Kurds.
Saddam is a Sunni, the once politically dominant group which makes up around
20 percent of Iraq's population.
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