Kuwait Lists Charges Against Hussein, Aides

Kuwaiti prosecutors have drawn up a list of charges against ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and hundreds of his former officials for alleged war crimes committed during Iraq’s occupation of this Persian Gulf nation, an official said Wednesday.

The list will be delivered to the Iraqi court that will try Hussein and other former regime members, and the new allegations will be added to the charges against them, Prosecutor General Hamed Othman said, according to the state-owned Kuwait News Agency.

Hussein, captured by U.S. troops in December 2003, faces charges in Iraq that include killing rival politicians during his 30-year rule, gassing Kurds, invading Kuwait and suppressing Kurdish and Shiite uprisings in 1991 after the Persian Gulf War.

The Kuwaiti charges include allegations that Hussein’s government kidnapped 605 Kuwaitis and nationals of other countries who lived in the oil-rich state during Iraq’s 1990-91 occupation, Othman said. The remains of 147 of the abductees were found in mass graves in Iraq after Hussein’s dictatorship was toppled in April 2003.

In addition, 5,733 Kuwaitis were tortured by electric shock, beaten, starved and sexually abused by Hussein’s regime, and 139 were seriously injured by shooting or by land mines planted by Iraqis, Othman added.

Nine senior regime figures in addition to Hussein were among those charged by Kuwait, including Ali Hassan Majid, who ruled Kuwait during the occupation; Tarik Aziz, Hussein’s foreign minister and deputy prime minister; and Taha Yassin Ramadan, a vice president.

Majid, Aziz and Ramadan are in U.S. custody.