Saddam to stand trial for Shiite massacre

Saddam Hussain and three others will stand trial in the 1982 massacre of Shiite villagers north of Baghdad, a senior judge announced yesterday. It is the first criminal case brought against the ousted leader.

Raid Juhi, chief judge of the Iraq Special Tribunal, said the preliminary investigation into the July 8, 1982 massacre in Dujail, a predominantly Shiite village 80km north of Baghdad, has been completed and the case referred to the courts for trial.

"The date for the trial will be determined within the few coming days by the gentlemen in the criminal court," Juhi said.

The announcement roughly corresponds to an indictment in US jurisprudence, legal officials said, although Saddam and the others will be considered "charged" when they appear in court. The court will now have 45 days to announce a date for the start of the trial.

Others facing trial in the case are Barazan Ebrahim, intelligence chief at the time and Saddam's half-brother; former Vice-President Taha Yasin Ramadan and Awad Hamed Al Bandar, at the time a Baath party official in Dujail. If convicted they could receive the death penalty.

Saddam's security forces massacred about people in the Shiite village of Dujail, 80km north of Baghdad after the president narrowly escaped assassination.