| Saddam to face Genocide Charges |
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by Joanna Zonunsangi, 24x7 Updates
Baghdad, Iraq -- The latest development in the trial of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is the announcement from an Iraqi tribunal that the former dictator will be charged with genocide over his 1980 campaign against the Kurds.
The new charges to be faced by Saddam include a campaign of killings, arrests, property destruction and deportation. According to BBC’s Andrew North this particular campaign of Hussein against the Kurds has been widely regarded as Saddam Hussein’s greatest crimes. Hussein along with six others will face this trial.
The campaign against the Kurds popularly known as the Anfal campaign witnessed the gassing of 5,000 Kurds in Halabaja. Spokesman for the tribunal, Raid Juhi has said," These people (the victims of the Anfal) were subjected to forced displacement and illegal detention of thousands of civilians. These civilians were placed in different detention centers. The villages were destroyed and burned. Homes and houses of worshippers and buildings of civilians were leveled without reason or a military requirement."
The tribunal reached this decision to charge Saddam after its investigators had gone through thousands of documents, uncovered mass graves and testimonials from reliable eye witnesses. The others charged include Hussein’s cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid better known as Chemical Ali, former defence minister Sultan Hashim Ahmed among others.
Incidentally this announcement comes just a day prior to the Dujail trial, which will hear accusations against Saddam over the 1982 killing’s of Shias.
This will be the first time that Saddam has been charged with genocide and it remains unclear whether he will face any more trials in the future in case he sentenced to death at the end of this particular trial. As per reports from Reuters the Iraqi president, Jalal Talabani expects Saddam to stand trial in all cases against him before any verdict is reached, in this context he also said, " I believe the court is working on a plan whereby he will be tried for all crimes and then a verdict will be handed down."
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