Prosecutors narrow case against Saddam Hussein to 12 charges

BAGHDAD, Iraq: Saddam Hussein could face up to 500 charges, but prosecutors will focus on 12 well-documented cases, including the gassing of thousands of Kurds in northern Iraq, an official said yesterday as the government pressed ahead with efforts to start the trial of the ousted dictator within two months. The announcement came a day after US Marines said they had discovered 50 weapons and ammunitions caches over the past four days in the restive Anbar province. The find included a recently used “insurgent lair” in a massive underground bunker complex that included air-conditioned living quarters and high tech military equipment, including night vision goggles.

Separately, Australia’s top Islamic cleric said he has seen hostage Douglas Wood, and that the 63-year-old California-based Australian engineer is “still alive and in honest hands” and has received vital medication for his heart condition. Sheik Taj El Din al-Hilaly is in Iraq on a mission to secure Wood’s release. South of Baghdad, Iraqi forces backed by US troops staged a second day of raids in Latifiyah, a town in the blood-soaked Triangle of Death region, where insurgents have launched multiple bombings and deadly ambushes. Washington hinges the eventual withdrawal of US troops from Iraq on the ability of Iraq’s American-backed police and army forces to take control of their own country’s security. But the raging insurgency, which has seen at least 820 people killed since Iraq’s new government was announced April 28, has dimmed hopes of any quick pull-out of US forces.

A date has not been set for the trial of Saddam, who is being held in a US-run prison in Baghdad since being captured in December 2003. But a spokesman for Iraqi prime minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari said the government was confident it would begin within the next two months. “There should be no objection that a trial should take place within that time,” spokesman Laith Kuba said at a press conference. “It is the government’s view that the trial of Saddam should take place as soon as possible.” Kuba said prosecutors have narrowed their case against Saddam to focus on 12 charges, including the gassing of the Kurdish town of Halabja, where thousands were killed on March 16, 1988.

Saddam could face more than 500 charges, but “there is no reason behind wasting efforts on all 500,” Kuba said. “The number of charges on which he will be tried are 12 and the (investigating) judges are confident that he will be convicted of these charges.” Issam Ghazawi, a Jordan-based spokesman for Saddam’s legal team, criticised Kuba’s comments, saying; “It’s illegal to issue charges against the Iraqi president this way. “The appropriate channel is for the accusations to come through the court and for the lawyers to receive a copy of the indictment.” Kuba did not list all 12 charges, but Saddam was arraigned July 1 in Baghdad on broad charges including the poisonous bombing of Halabja, killing rival politicians during his 30-year rule, invading Kuwait in 1990 and suppressing Kurdish and Shi’ite uprisings in 1991.

The Egyptian-born Australian cleric al-Hilaly apparently met with Wood late last week, but he did not say where he saw the captive or give more details. Wood was abducted in late April and a militant group calling itself the Shura Council of the Mujahedeen of Iraq released a DVD on May 1 showing him pleading for Australia to withdraw its 1,400 troops from Iraq. The Australian government has refused to bend to the demands regarding Wood, who suffers from a heart condition and requires regular medication.

“I swear that Mr Douglas Wood is still alive and (is in) honest hands,” al-Hilaly told Associated Press television news at his Baghdad hotel. “They (the kidnappers) want others to listen to them. They are not against the Australian people.” Since arriving in Baghdad earlier this week, al-Hilaly has been airing what he says are the grievances of the kidnappers in an apparent bid to free Wood. He has been calling on US-led forces to free Iraqi detainees and leave Iraq. More than 200 foreigners have been taken hostage in Iraq; more than 30 of them were slain by their captors.