- BAGHDAD (Reuters) -- Saddam
Hussein appeared before an Iraqi judge Wednesday as Iraq's newly sovereign
government took the first step toward bringing him to justice -- and a
possible death penalty -- for 35 years of killing and torture.
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- "Today at 10:15 a.m. the Republic of Iraq assumed
legal custody of Saddam Hussein," said a terse statement from interim
Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's office.
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- The deposed dictator and 11 of his lieutenants were turned
over to face Iraqi justice nearly 15 months after U.S.-led forces overthrew
him. They will stay under U.S. military guard.
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- "Saddam said 'Good morning' and asked if he could
ask some questions," said Salem Chalabi, the U.S.-trained lawyer leading
the work of a tribunal set up to try the former president.
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- "He was told he should wait until tomorrow,"
Chalabi told Reuters after attending the formalities in which Saddam and
11 of his former lieutenants were turned over to Iraqi justice.
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- Chalabi, who has received death threats since he began
work on the tribunal, said the 67-year-old Saddam looked in good health
and had sat in a chair during the closed proceedings.
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- Saddam's former aides appeared nervous or hostile and
one of them, Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as Chemical Ali for his role in
using chemical weapons, was shaking.
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- Saddam, accused by Iraqis of ordering the killing and
torture of thousands of people during 35 years of Baathist rule, had been
held as a prisoner of war since U.S. forces found him hiding in a hole
near his hometown of Tikrit on Dec. 13.
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- He will now be subject to Iraqi criminal law, rather
than a POW protected by the Geneva Conventions. His trial is likely to
be several months away. Iraq's national security adviser said it would
be broadcast live on television.
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- CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY
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- Iraq's president was quoted as saying the death penalty,
suspended during the U.S.-led occupation, would be reinstated and the national
security adviser said it could apply to Saddam.
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- The fallen leader will be charged with crimes against
humanity for a 1988 gas massacre of Kurds, the 1990 invasion of Kuwait
and the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, according to Chalabi.
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- "Tomorrow's proceedings will mark the start of his
trial," said an official in Allawi's office.
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- French lawyer Emmanuel Ludot, one of a 20-strong team
appointed by Saddam's wife to represent him, said the former president
would refuse to acknowledge any court or any judge.
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- "It will be a court of vengeance, a settling of
scores," Ludot told France Info radio, saying any judge sitting in
the court would be under pressure to find Saddam guilty.
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- Among others to be handed over were Former Deputy Prime
Minister Tareq Aziz and three of Saddam's half-brothers.
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- Those former officials and others among the 55 most wanted
Iraqis on a U.S. list are seen as witnesses who could help prove a chain
of command linking Saddam to crimes against humanity.
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- Government offices were shut Wednesday for a new national
holiday declared to mark Monday's transfer of sovereignty to the interim
government from U.S.-British occupation authorities.
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- MORTAR ATTACK
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- Allawi's government wants to show Iraqis that the occupation
is really over, despite the continued presence of 160,000 U.S.-led foreign
troops, and to prove it can curb violence.
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- British Prime Minister Tony Blair said U.S.-led forces
are expected to publish detailed plans within a month on progress in building
up Iraqi security capability, needed to wean the new government off its
dependence on U.S. forces.
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- "The determination of the new Iraqi government is
inspirational but the challenge, especially around Baghdad is formidable,"
Blair told parliament.
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- Insurgents fired six to 10 mortar rounds that landed
north of Baghdad international airport Wednesday, wounding six soldiers
of the U.S.-led force, a U.S. military spokesman said.
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- A bomb exploded in the southern town of Samawa, where
Japanese and Dutch troops are deployed, but no one was badly hurt, witnesses
said. The blast was not near the Japanese camp.
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- In Najaf, Iraqi police announced an overnight curfew
after fighters loyal to Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr clashed with a police
patrol. Witnesses said shops were closed and Sadr's Mehdi Army fighters
were on the streets of the holy city in force.
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- Allawi has said the government might impose emergency
law in parts of the country, but has made no formal announcement.
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- The Iraqi government has decided to reinstate the death
penalty and offer an amnesty to Iraqis who do not have blood on their hands,
President Ghazi al-Yawar was quoted as saying.
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- He told Asharq al-Awsat newspaper that Iraq would reinstate
a 1960s national security law. He described it as "less severe than
emergency laws," but said it contained "resolute measures against
terrorist acts and breaches of the law."
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- National Security Adviser Mowaffaq al-Rubaie said Saddam
would get a fair, televised trial and could face execution.
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- In London, Prime Minister Tony Blair's spokesman said
Britain opposed the death penalty but would respect the decision of the
sovereign Iraqi government and judiciary.
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- The European Court of Human Rights said it had rejected
a request by Saddam's lawyers for an interim decision barring Britain from
allowing him to be handed to Iraqi legal custody.
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- The Strasbourg-based court said Saddam's team could pursue
a case filed on the grounds of the right to life and the abolition of the
death penalty under the Convention on Human Rights.
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