Saddam to face trial for genocide

Saddam Hussein will face a new trial for alleged genocide against the Kurds in a 1988 deadly crackdown, the court trying the former Iraqi leader said.

The court said on Tuesday that the new charges of genocide and crimes against humanity had been brought against the ousted Iraqi leader and six co-defendants, paving the way for a new trial.

“We declare the investigations are completed in the case called the Anfal campaign in which thousands of men and women were killed. The accused are being transferred to the criminal court,” said Raed al-Juhi, the the court’s spokesman.

Saddam’s co-accused will include his cousin Ali Hassan al-Majeed, known as “Chemical Ali”, and the former defence minister, Sultan Hashim Ahmad, for their roles in a poison gas attack against the Kurdish village of Halabja in 1988 that killed 5,000 people, including women and children.

Human rights groups consider the Halabja attack one of the gravest atrocities allegedly committed by Saddam’s regime.

“These people were subjected to forced displacement and illegal detentions of thousands of civilians,” al-Juhi said.

“They were placed in different detentions centres. The villages were destroyed and burned. Homes and houses of worshippers and buildings of civilians were levelled without reason or a military requirement.”

The toppled Iraqi president is already on trial in connection with the killing of 148 Shias after an attempt on his life in the town of Dujail in 1982.

The Dujail trial, which started last October, was the first of what Iraqi authorities say could be up to a dozen proceedings.

Saddam could face death by hanging if convicted in the Dujail case. It is unclear whether the sentence would be carried out while other trials were in progress.

Agencies