Judges to try Saddam selected
2004-04-21 09:47
Baghdad - Judges who will try former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein have been selected, a spokesperson for the pro-US Iraqi National Congress (INC) party said on Tuesday.
"Lawyer Sami Chalabi was named president of the court," Entifadh Qanbar, spokesperson for Ahmad Chalabi's INC, said that seven judges and five prosecutors were also named.
"The building that will house the court has also been selected and a budget has been earmarked for this trial," he added.
But the date of the trial has yet to be set. Saddam Hussein has been in detention since US forces captured him on December 13.
US officials say Saddam is somewhere in Iraq and will be tried by Iraqi judges.
Meanwhile Qanbar accused followers of the ousted regime of leading the insurgency in the Sunni bastion of Fallujah, west of Baghdad.
He said their aim was to "stop Iraq's march toward democracy".
Qanbar said elements of the new Iraqi army had taken part in the Fallujah fighting that pitted US marines against anti-occupation rebels.
He also welcomed the appointment of US ambassador to the United Nations, John Negroponte, as Washington's first ambassador to post-Saddam Iraq.
- AFP