Iraqis gain legal custody of Saddam

Iraqis gain legal custody of Saddam
Trial won't be for months, may be broadcast live
The Associated Press
Updated: 10:31 a.m. ET June 30, 2004

U.S. Army via AP file

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Legal custody of Saddam Hussein and 11 others was transferred to the Iraqis on Wednesday, the first step toward trying the former dictator on charges expected to include the massacre of Kurds in 1988 and the invasion of Kuwait two years later.

In a one line announcement, Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's office said that the Iraqis had assumed legal -- but not custodial -- control, "today, 30th June, at 10:15 in the morning."

They are to appear in court on Thursday for a formal reading of the charges.

The first step has happened," Salem Chalabi, the director of the Iraqi Special Tribunal that will try Saddam, told The Associated Press. He refused to elaborate.

"I met with him (Saddam) earlier today to explain his rights and what will happen," Chalabi said.

Saddam will remain in an American-controlled jail guarded by Americans until the Iraqis are ready to take physical custody of him. That is expected to take a long time, and a trial isn't likely for several months.

The defendants were informed individually of their rights, an international official said on condition of anonymity. An Iraqi judge witnessed the proceedings.

The crimes against humanity for which Saddam is expected to be tried include the 1988 chemical weapons massacre of Kurds in Halabja, the slaughter of Shiites during a 1991 uprising in southern Iraq, the 1990 invasion of Kuwait and the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war.

The legal transfer means that Saddam and the others are no longer prisoners of war — subject to rights under the Geneva Conventions — but criminal defendants whose treatment will be in accordance with Iraqi law.

Death penalty possible
Already there are pretrial negotiations over permitting Saddam's foreign legal team to work in Iraq, whether to televise the proceedings and whether to reinstate the death penalty, which was suspended by American occupation chief L. Paul Bremer.

Mouwafak al-Rubaie, Iraq's new national security adviser, said Wednesday that the Iraqi Special Tribunal would be able to impose the death penalty. He said Saddam would not be allowed to turn the trial into a political game, by calling witnesses such as U.S. President George Bush or British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

"Saddam Hussein will be under the legal control of Iraqi law," he told British Broadcasting Corp. radio. "He is going to be tried according to the Iraqi criminal code."

The process of preparing for Saddam's trial come at an extremely difficult time. U.S. administrators turned over power to a sovereign Iraqi government only Monday. Allawi's government faces a relentless insurgency, and 160,000 U.S.-led foreign troops will remain.

Iraqi officials insist Saddam and the others will get fair trials. Hamid al-Bayati, Iraq's new deputy foreign minister and a leader of the main Shiite Muslim party, said there was "no chance at all" that Saddam might walk out a free man, perhaps on a legal technicality.

"The whole world will see this," said al-Bayati, who said he was tortured in Saddam's prisons in the 1970s. "He won't be able to walk free."