Kuwait wants death for Saddam
2005-09-11 20:47
Kuwait City - Kuwait wants former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and his detained former regime members sentenced to death for alleged crimes committed during Iraq's 1990 invasion of this oil-rich state, a justice ministry official said on Sunday.
Kuwait, which was occupied for seven months before being liberated during the US-led 1991 Gulf War, has completed a file detailing the charges it wants Iraqi authorities to try Saddam on, Kuwaiti justice minister Ahmed Baqer was quoted by Kuwait's state-run news agency, KUNA, as saying.
"Asking for the death penalty is based on numerous crimes committed by the former Iraqi regime," said Baqer late on Saturday, becoming the highest level Kuwaiti official to call for Saddam's execution.
A justice ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Kuwait wanted to seek "the harshest penalty" against Saddam.
Two batches of charges
Saddam, who was captured in December 2003, and several other ex-members of his regime are to stand trial in the Iraq special tribunal on October 19 charged with ordering the 1982 massacre of about 150 Iraqis in the city of Dujail, north of Baghdad.
Iraqi authorities have also accused Saddam of killing rival politicians during his 30-year rule, gassing Kurds, invading Kuwait and suppressing Kurdish and Shiite uprisings in 1991 after the Gulf War that liberated Kuwait.
Kuwait has sent Iraq two batches of charges against separate lists of defendants. One includes Saddam and nine former top aides, while the other names 293 former Iraqi regime officials and their alleged crimes.
The counts included kidnapping, murder, torture, theft and damaging the environment.
Senior Iraqi officials ordered in writing the theft and destruction of the country's archives, and the Iraqis sabotaged about 700 oil wells before their troops withdrew from the country, Kuwait alleges.
Kuwait was the launch pad for the invasion of 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, and it was the only Arab country that supported it openly.
Ties with Baghdad resumed after Saddam's regime was overthrown.
- AP