Ex-Hussein Aides to Be Tried for Alleged Crimes Against Humanity

Five colleagues of Saddam Hussein accused of mass killings more than two decades ago in retaliation for an attempt on the then-president’s life will be the fallen regime’s first defendants to face trial for alleged crimes against humanity, an Iraqi tribunal said Monday.

During a closed hearing in a sandbagged courtroom near Baghdad’s international airport, Iraq’s chief investigative judge told the defendants that he was referring their case to trial, where a panel of five judges will preside. The action is roughly equivalent to a prosecutor filing charges against a criminal suspect, according to a Western legal expert who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Among the defendants before the Iraqi Special Tribunal will be one of Hussein’s half-brothers, though not the one Iraqi authorities announced Sunday had been detained by Syria and turned over to them.

Under Iraqi law, the trial can’t begin for at least 45 days. In addition, officials said contractors had yet to finish building the courthouse where the five defendants and others, including Hussein, are to be tried. They said it would be finished before the end of the 45-day period.

The charges stem from a July 8, 1982, incident in which Hussein’s motorcade was fired on by a small group of villagers as it sped through Dujayl, about 40 miles north of Baghdad. Within hours, Iraqi intelligence agents and police descended on the largely Shiite Muslim village.

The defendants are accused of arranging the executions of more than 140 villagers and the imprisonment of about 1,500 people.

Authorities say the men also were behind the destruction of agricultural land and crops belonging to the villagers.

The defendants are Barzan Ibrahim Hassan Tikriti, 53, Hussein’s half-brother and the former chief of Iraqi intelligence; Taha Yassin Ramadan, 66, a former deputy prime minister and vice president; Awad Hamad Bandr Sadun, 60, former chief judge of the Revolutionary Court; Abdullah Kadam Roweed Musheikhi, 79, a local Baath Party official; and his son, Mizher Abdullah Kadam Roweed Musheikhi, 50.

Each defendant could face the death penalty if convicted.

Hussein and 11 other regime officials, including Hassan and Ramadan, appeared in court in July and were told they were being investigated for alleged crimes against humanity. Officials would not say Monday when cases against other defendants were likely to be referred to trial.