Iraqi Leader Says Hussein Confessed to Killings

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said Tuesday that he had been told that ousted leader Saddam Hussein had confessed to killings and other crimes.

But Talabani named no specific crime, and it was unclear what details he might have learned about a legal process intended to be separate from politics.

It also was unclear whether, according to Talabani’s account, Hussein had confessed to crimes or had acknowledged that he had ordered killings and other actions that he considered legal. Whether the actions were crimes under Iraqi law would have to be determined at trial.

Talabani told Iraqi state television that he had been informed by an investigating judge that the jurist “was able to extract confessions from Saddam’s mouth” about crimes “such as executions” that Hussein had ordered when he was president.

Hussein faces his first trial Oct. 19 for his alleged role in the 1982 massacre of more than 140 Shiite Muslims in Dujayl, a town north of Baghdad. He could face the death penalty if convicted.

The Iraqi Special Tribunal is also investigating Hussein’s alleged role in other atrocities.