Saddam trial to start next month

SADDAM Hussein will be put on trial on 19 October for massacring 143 Shiites in retaliation for a failed assassination attempt in 1982, a legal official said yesterday.

The official said the date was chosen so that Iraqis would have completed the referendum on the proposed constitution before the start of the trial.

He added that the court was in the process of notifying Saddam's legal team.

Iraqis will go to the polls on 15 October to decide whether to accept or reject the new constitution, which is opposed by many in Saddam's Sunni Arab community.

Saddam and three co-defendants will stand trial for the massacre of Shiites in Dujail, a town north of Baghdad. Saddam could receive the death penalty.

Co-defendants in the case are Barazan Ibrahim, intelligence chief at the time and Saddam's half brother; former vice-president Taha Yassin Ramadan; and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, at the time a Baath party official in Dujail.

Another official confirmed: "Saddam's trial will start right after the October referendum ."

Saddam is actually expected to face about a dozen trials for alleged crimes committed by his regime, including the gassing of Kurds in Halabja, the invasion of Kuwait in 1990 and the 1991 suppression of a Shiite uprising in the south.

Iraqi authorities plan the series of trials for specific alleged offences, rather than charging him with all the offences in one hearing.

The former head of Saddam's international legal team said last night that no lawyer would appear before the "illegal special court" to represent the former dictator when he goes on trial.

"The team decided [before yesterday's developments] not to go to this special court. It's illegal because there is no constitution in Iraq," said Ziyad Khasawneh.

He had not heard the news that the trial was due to take place in the second half of October until told so by The Scotsman. "Until now I haven't heard this news," said Mr Khawasneh, who is based in Jordan.

"If it is true it is illegal. Everything is illegal in Iraq from the occupation until now. No lawyers will go to this court."

Saddam's defence already was apparently in disarray after he told the judge at the special tribunal on 23 August that his entire international legal team had been sacked.

Saddam's family announced early last month that it had dismissed all foreign lawyers and chosen the Iraqi lawyer, Khalil Dulaimi, to attend court hearings. Mr Dulaimi had been part of the Jordan-based legal team for a year and attended some of Saddam's hearings in Baghdad.

Mr Khasawneh, who resigned before the team was dismissed,

insisted Mr Dulaimi had told him he would not "go to this court".

US officials scrapped the death penalty in 2003 but Iraqi authorities reinstated it after the transfer of sovereignty so they would have the option of executing Saddam if he is convicted of crimes committed during his regime.

On Thursday, government spokesman Laith Kubba announced that Iraq had carried out its first executions since Saddam was ousted in 2003.

The trial will take place after Iraqis pass judgment on the controversial constitution, drawn up after weeks of fraught negotiations between Sunni Arabs, Shiites and Kurds.

The Sunni Arab negotiators have condemned the document and, in Saddam's hometown of Tikrit, about 2,000 Sunni Arabs from the surrounding province met yesterday to urge fellow Sunnis to reject the constitution in the referendum because of a provision on federalism which they say will lead to the break-up of the country.

However at least 5,000 Shiites held a rally in the southern city of Basra to show support for the deal. Yesterday representatives of both factions said fresh talks were being held to try to find a way of bringing the Sunnis on board.

"Discussions are underway to make minor changes in the language to improve the text to satisfy some parties," said Shiite negotiator Khalid al-Attiyah.

He said the discussions were focusing on "three or four" articles which "might help the approval of the constitution" in the referendum.