Saddam trial today

Nearly two years after his arrest in December 2003, ousted Iraqi president Saddam Hussain will go on trial today for committing crimes against humanity. Many people will be able to watch the legal session in which seven of Saddam's co-defendants will also be on trial, Iraqi officials said.

Saddam faces eight charges including killing more than 140 people in Dujail in 1982, crushing the Kurdish and Shiite rebellions after the 1991 Gulf War, killing political opponents over 30 years, massacring members of the Kurdish Barzani tribe in 1983, killing religious leaders in 1974, invading Kuwait in 1990, and gassing Kurds in the northeastern town of Halabja in 1988.

'The minimum level of arrangements to make the process [trial] ready have been taken,' Laith Kubba, Iraqi government spokes-person, told Gulf News in a statement on the eve of the trial. 'God willing, it will be carried on television,' he added without elaborating.

Khalil Al Dulaimi, Saddam's lawyer, was quoted by the Associated Press as saying that his client was in high spirits and 'very optimistic' on the eve of the trial. 'I have just left him five minutes ago. His morale is very, very, very high and he is very optimistic and confident of his innocence,' Al Dulaimi told AP.

Kubba meanwhile rejected the defence team's argument that the Iraqi Special Tribunal was not a legitimate court to try Saddam. 'Saddam is going on trial in front of the Iraqi judiciary, in an Iraqi case approved by the elected parliament in a free election [that was] supervised by the United nations,' said Kubba. 'Therefore, the full legal framework is available in the court procedures.'

Kubba's statement coincided with an announcement by Al Dulaimi that his team would argue that the tribunal, whose judges have been chosen during the US occupation, does not have the jurisdiction to try Saddam.

Al Dulaimi also said that at today's opening session, he would ask for adjournment of the trial to give him time to better prepare Saddam's defence.

Saddam faces eight charges including killing more than 140 people in Dujail in 1982, crushing the Kurdish and Shiite rebellions after the 1991 Gulf War, killing political opponents over 30 years, massacring members of the Kurdish Barzani tribe in 1983, killing religious leaders in 1974, invading Kuwait in 1990, and gassing Kurds in the northeastern town of Halabja in 1988.

While Abdul Haq Al Ani, a member of Saddam's defence team, said this is because the case is the 'easiest and less complicated than other cases,' Kubba retorted that 'even if Saddam's trial began with some other charge, the question will be that why not start with another case.'

Iran sends genocide indictment to Baghdad

Iran announced yesterday it had sent its own indictment against former Iraqi president Saddam Hussain to Iraq's government, with the list of complaints including genocide and the use of chemical weapons.

'The indictment has been sent through the foreign ministry. I presume it has been received,' Justice Minister Jamal Karimirad told reporters.

'The plaintiff is the entire Iranian nation. The crimes have affected all families,' he said, promising that 'in future other documents about these crimes will be submitted.'

'It is about Saddam's crimes and not reparations, which is an Iraqi government issue,' Karimirad said, referring to the compensation Tehran still claims for what the regime calls the 'imposed war'.

Iran and Iraq fought a devastating war from 1980-88.