Iraq reaches new milestone as court opens Saddam trial

SADDAM Hussein and seven senior members of his 23-year regime will go on trial today.

They will face charges that they ordered the 1982 killings of nearly 150 people from the mainly Shi’ite town of Dujail following a failed attempt on Saddam’s life.

Court officials have said they are trying Saddam on the Dujail massacre first because it was the easiest and quickest case to put together. Other cases - including a crackdown on the Kurds that killed an estimated 180,000 people - involve much larger numbers of victims, more witnesses and more documentation.

If convicted, Saddam and his codefendants could face the death penalty, but they could appeal before another chamber of the Iraqi Special tribunal.

Saddam and his codefendants are expected to hear the charges against them during today’s hearing, and the court will address procedural matters. The trial is then expected to be adjourned for several weeks.

Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari complained on Monday that the Iraqi court took an unjustifiably long time to prepare its case and brushed aside concerns that the court could be biased against the former dictator.

“I don’t think there are any more clear-cut crimes in the world than those committed by Saddam,” said the Shi’ite Muslim leader, five of whose close relatives, including an older brother, were executed by Saddam’s regime in the 1980s and 1990s.

He underlined, however, that the deaths in his family did not mean that he would get a sense of personal satisfaction if the former dictator is eventually executed.

“I try to forget what happened to my brother and my cousins. It is never an issue of revenge or personal malice,” al-Jaafari said during a 2½-hour meeting with journalists over ‘iftar,’ the sunset meal Muslims eat to break their fast during the month of Ramadan.

Al-Jaafari’s Shi’ite Dawa Party was blamed by the toppled regime for the attempt on Saddam’s life in Dujail, a Dawa stronghold.