Iraq confirms Saddam handover

2004-06-29 13:08

Baghdad - Saddam Hussein and 11 top officials from his regime will be transferred to Iraqi legal custody on Wednesday and his arrest warrant read out the following day, Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said on Tuesday.

"This government has formally requested the transfer of the most notorious and high profile detainees to Iraqi legal custody," Allawi told reporters.

"So Saddam Hussein... along with up to 11 other high valued detainees will be transferred to the legal custody of Iraq tomorrow."

Allawi said Saddam and the 11 others, whom he did not name, would be tried in a special court to be set up in December.

"We believe those responsible will face justice in the Iraq tribunal formed in December to try those responsible for crimes against humanity and war crimes," he said.

However, he said the detainees would remain guarded by multinational forces until the Iraqi detention services were ready to take physical custody.

"Up until that day the multinational force will keep these detainees and will transfer them over to Iraqi justice. The multinational force has agreed to that."

Iraqi Special Tribunal head Salem Chalabi said earlier on Tuesday that the US-led multinational force in Iraq had agreed to hand Saddam and 11 senior members of his old regime over to Iraqi custody in the next few days.

"They're going to be in custody of Iraqis but we've asked for assistance in security matters," Chalabi 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.

He 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.

He 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