Saddam handover deal struck
2004-06-29 09:56
Baghdad - The US-led multinational force in Iraq has agreed to hand Saddam Hussein and 11 senior members of his old regime over to Iraqi custody in the next few days, according to the head of the country's special tribunal.
Saddam and his former henchmen will be under Iraqi lock and key with assistance from the multinational forces, Salem Chalabi said.
"They're going to be in custody of Iraqis but we've asked for assistance in security matters," Chalabi said.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Iraqi Special Tribunal charged with handling the crimes of the old regime announced Saddam's handover in a statement.
"As a consequence over the next few days, the Iraqi authorities will be taking custody of 12 senior members of the previous regime, including Saddam Hussein, this being the first transfer of those senior members who will be charged with the commission of serious crimes," the statement read.
Transferred
Chalabi refused to name the other men to be transferred with Saddam. However, Chalabi has previously mentioned Ali Hassan Majid, the first cousin of the former president, as a candidate for the tribunal's first trial.
Majid, dubbed Chemical Ali, is blamed for Saddam's 1987-1988 Anfal campaign that saw some 5 000 Kurds gassed in the village of Halabja and other communities razed to the ground.
Iraq's National Security Advisor Muwaffaq al-Rubaie told CBS television on Sunday a shackled and chained Saddam was to be hauled before an Iraqi judge and read the charges against him in the next few days.
"The judge will call his name, Saddam Hussein Majid. And they will bring him in... open his chain, handcuff and take him to the judge and the judge is going to give him his rights and his defence and he's going to issue an arrest warrant against Saddam Hussein," Rubaie said.
Saddam will most probably face war crime charges over the suppression of the 1991 Shiite and Kurdish uprisings; the use of chemical weapons against the Kurds in 1988; the launching of the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war; and the 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
Saddam is currently being held under tight security at Camp Cropper, a US military detention centre on Iraq's former international airport, according to a humanitarian organisation.
The camp is set for closure.
An unkempt, long-haired and bearded Saddam was captured by US forces on December 13, after he was found hiding in a hole on a farm near his northern hometown of Tikrit.
- AFP