Saddam turned over to Iraq for trial of the century

Iraq’s new authorities took legal control of Saddam Hussein and 11 others in Baghdad today, setting the stage for a court appearance to face war crimes charges on his 24 years in power.

In a one-line statement, Prime Minister Iyad Allawi’s office said that the Iraqis had assumed legal – but not custodial – control, “today, June 30, at 10.15 in the morning.”

The 12 defendants are expected to appear in court tomorrow for a formal reading of the charges.

“The first step has happened,” Salem Chalabi, the director of the Iraqi Special Tribunal, said. “I met with him (Saddam) earlier today to explain his rights and what will happen.”

He refused to elaborate.

The defendants were informed individually of their rights, said an international official. An Iraqi judge witnessed the proceedings.

Saddam will remain in an American-controlled jail guarded by Americans until the Iraqis are ready to take physical custody of him. That is expected to take a long time.

However, the legal transfer means that Saddam and the others are no longer prisoners of war – subject to rights under the Geneva Conventions – but criminal defendants whose treatment will be in accordance with Iraqi law.

Iraqis and the world will get their first glimpse of Saddam since his capture in December when he and 11 of his top lieutenants are brought to court to face the charges likely to include the 1988 chemical weapons massacre of Kurds and the 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

Already there are pre-trial negotiations over permitting Saddam’s foreign legal team to work in Iraq, whether to televise the proceedings live and whether to reinstate the harshest penalty in Iraq’s legal code: hanging.

Chalabi, director of the Iraqi Special Tribunal that will try Saddam, said the appearance at the tribunal, housed in a courthouse with a prominent clock tower inside Baghdad’s sealed-off Green Zone, was expected to be filmed for public release.

The pictures would offer the first bit of video since Saddam’s December 13 capture by US soldiers, when a clip showed the bushy-bearded leader opening his mouth for a dental examination.

Abdel Rahim al-Rifaei, a spokesman for Allawi, told the Arab language television station Al-Jazeera, that under Iraqi laws, Saddam will be granted 24 hours to respond to the list of accusations and get a lawyer.

“Tomorrow … his trial officially starts,” he said.

The first batch of Saddam’s lieutenants to face the tribunal include Ali Hassan al-Majid, also known as “Chemical Ali”, former Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan, former deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz, and two of Saddam’s half brothers.

The moves to try Saddam are a sign of Iraqis taking matters into their own hands after US administrators turned over power on Monday – though some 160,000 US-led foreign troops remain to protect Allawi’s government from a relentless insurgency.

Chalabi has said the trials of Saddam and other senior figures would probably not begin before 2005.

The trial of the 67-year-old Saddam stands to be the most sensational case in Iraqi history. Saddam’s case is expected to bare the chasm between the Iraqis who benefited from his 24-year rule, and those whom it scarred.

“Everyone who lost loved ones to Saddam will want to see this,” said Hamid al-Bayati, Iraq’s new deputy foreign minister and a leader of the main Shiite Muslim party.

He noted that Saddam’s victims are estimated in the hundreds of thousands or more, which means a huge segment of the 26 million Iraqis want to watch him answer for those crimes.

In places where resistance to the US occupation has been fierce – such as Tikrit, the city near his birthplace – residents were nonplussed by the forthcoming trial, charging that the new government was merely acting on behalf of the United States.

“Saddam Hussein was a national hero and better than the traitors in the new government,” said one resident who was afraid to give his name.

The trial could contribute to the upheaval in Iraq by polarising Saddam’s supporters and detractors, said Walid Mohammed al-Shibibi, a Baghdad lawyer and editor of a legal journal.

“This will escalate into terrorist attacks,” he said.

Iraqi law has no restrictions on televising trials, but some could be imposed if the judge wishes, al-Shibibi and others said.

Iraqi officials insist Saddam and the others will get fair trials. Asked whether justice includes the possibility that Saddam might walk out a free man, perhaps on a legal technicality, al-Bayati said there was “no chance at all”.

“The whole world will see this,” said al-Bayati, who said he was tortured in Saddam’s prisons in the 1970s. “He won’t be able to walk free.”

Allawi said his Cabinet is discussing reinstating Iraq’s death penalty, which was suspended by American occupation chief Paul Bremer.

In Washington, Bremer, who returned there yesterday, said the new government faced a daunting task but Prime Minister Iyad Illawi was “a tough guy” and could do the job.

Standing on the North Lawn of the White House for appearances on several morning US news shows, he said the Iraqi security forces could succeed but there was a difficult month ahead.

“I’m confident that as we get the leadership training in place with the security forces, they will be able to defend their country and they will get the security situation – not totally calm, but under control,” he said.

In Baghdad, insurgents fired at least 10 mortar rounds at a US base on the outskirts of the city’s international airport today, wounding 11 soldiers, two of them seriously, and starting a fire that burned for well over an hour.

Elsewhere, a car bomb exploded outside the headquarters of the provincial police force in Samawah, 150 miles south of Baghdad, police said. Two people were wounded in the blast, which set two other vehicles ablaze.