Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein will go on trial on October 19 over the massacre of Shiite villagers more than two decades ago, for which he could face the death penalty, officials said Sunday.
Saddam, who has been in US custody awaiting trial on charges of crimes against humanity since December 2003, could be swiftly executed if found guilty, said government spokesman Laith Kubba.
"In view of recent leaks to the press and in the absence of an official spokesman for the tribunal, I have been authorised to announce that the trial of Saddam Hussein will begin on October 19," he told a news conference.
Saddam and seven henchmen will be tried by the Iraqi Special Tribunal over the 1982 killing of 143 residents in the Shiite village of Dujail, north-east of Baghdad, where he had been the target of a failed assassination bid. The 68-year-old is also expected to face separate trials at a later date on further counts of crimes against humanity, particularly over the gassing of Kurds and the mass killings of Shiites in the south of the country.
But Kubba told AFP that if found guilty and sentenced to death after the initial trial, the punishment could be carried out without waiting for any further trials.
If the sentence is confirmed by the Supreme Council for Justice, the highest judicial authority in Iraq, and approved by the presidential council, it "will be implemented immediately... He could be executed after the first round".
Iraqi Shiites and Kurds, long-oppressed under Saddam, greeted Sunday's news of a trial date with relief, although some pointed out that the Dujail massacre was just one of a series of crimes for which they wanted vengeance.
"We would have preferred him to answer for all the crimes he committed against the Iraqi people," said Kurdish lawmaker Nawzat Saleh.
Others who will stand trial with Saddam include former vice-president Taha Yassin Ramadan, former secret police chief Barzan Ibrahim Hassan al-Tikriti, a Saddam half-brother, and Awad Ahmad al-Bandar, a former chief judge and member of Saddam's cabinet.
The remaining four - father and son Abdullah Khadem Ruweid and Mezhar Abdullah Ruweid, along with Ali Daeh Ali and Mohammad Azzam al-Ali - are former ruling Baath party officials responsible for the Dujail area.
Iraq reinstated the death penalty that had been abolished by the US-led coalition after its invasion of Iraq, and last week carried out the first executions, hanging three convicted murderers.
Saddam and his co-defendants will be tried for the murder of 143 Iraqi citizens, the jailing of 399 families, the demolition of houses and destruction of farmland and the forced exile of a number of the mainly Shiite villagers.
Saddam, who was ousted in April 2003 and captured by US forces the following December, is currently being detained by US forces outside Baghdad airport. He first appeared in court in July 2004.
The trial will take place just after a scheduled October 15 referendum to approve Iraq's new draft constitution, but Kubba said the timing was purely coincidental.
There was renewed talk earlier this week of last-minute amendments of the constitution to appease Sunni groups who have launched a campaign to defeat the charter at the referendum, after US ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad suggested the draft was not set in stone.
But Kubba said that while low-level talks had taken place between Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish representatives, these had only dealt with "fine-tuning" and there were "no fundamental changes" to the text.
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