Another trial of Saddam has begun

Yesterday, at a new trial in Baghdad presided over by Shiite judge Abdullah al-Amiri, Saddam Hussein refused to plead guilty to the genocide of the Kurds. So did Ali Hassan al-Majid, nicknamed Chemical Ali, Saddam's cousin and ex-head of the Northern Iraq Committee in the Revolutionary Command Council. Still in the dock are former Defense Minister Sultan Hashim Ahmad, intelligence chief Sabir Abdel-Aziz, Republican Guard commander Hussein Rashid, Nineveh provincial governor Tahir Muhammad al-Ani and ground forces commander Farhan al-Jiburi.

They are accused of exterminating 182 thousand Kurds during Operation Anfal (Spoils) in the mid-1980s. According to the official Iraqi version of the time, the operation was directed against armed separatists who supported Iran in the 1980-1988 war with Iraq.

The poisoning of five thousand Kurds with chemical Ali mustard in the village of Halabja in 1988 was separated into a separate case, where the main person involved is still the same Saddam. It is expected that these trials will continue until mid-December in parallel with the trial that began in October 2005 of the murder of 148 Shiites in the village of Dujail after the assassination attempt on Saddam there in 1982. The verdict in this case, which will most likely be death for Saddam, will be read out by Kurdish judge Rauf Rashid Abdel Rahman on October 16.

Alexey SLOBODIN