Court date for Saddam regime members

Iraq will bring top figures of Saddam Hussein’s ousted regime to court next week for the first time since they appeared before a judge five months ago, and formal indictments could be issued next month.

Many have been in custody for more than a year and have not met with lawyers, prompting complaints from Saddam’s legal representatives.

A Western official in Baghdad, who wished not to be named, agreed that the hearings next week would be preliminary. The official said among the first of those to appear would likely be Saddam’s notorious right-hand man, Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as “Chemical Ali”.

The regime figures face charges for crimes allegedly committed during the 35-year Baath Party dictatorship, including war crimes, mass killings and the suppression of the 1991 Shiite rebellion.

Saddam, who was arrested a year ago, will not be among those to appear in court next week.

The surprise announcement by Iraq’s interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi came only days after government leaders said the Special Tribunal was not yet prepared to begin the trials.

Iraqi leaders, working with US officials, need to train judges and prosecutors and sort through stacks of evidence, all under the pressure of a deadly insurgency that has attacked at will.

In the latest violence, insurgents killed seven people yesterday in the second suicide bombing in two days outside Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone.

The military also announced that two US Marines from the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force based in western Iraq died in combat in Baghdad province on Monday, bringing the number of Marines killed to 10 in three days.

To help secure the country, General Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, announced in Baghdad that the US military will have a record-high 150,000 troops in Iraq through the January 30 elections and “a little bit after”.

The government had said in early December that troop levels would be raised from 138,000 to 150,000 to help secure next month’s vote, which many Iraqis fear could be targeted by militants opposed to the occupation and bent on derailing the political process.

Asked when exactly the troops would pull out, Myers responded: “That will be determined by events on the ground.”

Allawi’s government has been under pressure recently to show progress on the trials.

His announcement came a day after the US military acknowledged that eight of Saddam’s 11 top lieutenants went on hunger strike over the weekend to demand jail visits from the International Committee of the Red Cross.

The officials were eating again by Monday, the military said.