Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein

IRAQ. SADDAM TO GO ON TRIAL OCTOBER 19

September 4, 2005: former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and seven of his henchmen would go on trial on October 19 over the massacre of 143 people more than two decades ago, government spokesman Laith Kubba.
"In view of recent leaks to the press and in the absence of an official spokesman for the tribunal, I have been authorized to announce that the trial of Saddam Hussein will begin on October 19," Kubba said.
Saddam and the seven others would be tried by the Iraqi Special Tribunal over the 1982 killing of 143 residents in the village of Dujail, northeast of Baghdad, where he had been the target of a failed assassination bid.
Saddam was also expected to face separate trials at a later date on further counts of crimes against humanity, particularly with regard to the gassing of Kurds and the mass killings of Shiites in the south of the country.
But Kubba suggested that, if found guilty and sentenced to death after the initial trial, the punishment could be carried out without waiting for any further trials.
If the sentence was confirmed by the Supreme Council for Justice, the highest judicial authority in Iraq, and approved by the presidential council, it "will be implemented immediately", he told reporters. (Sources: Agence France Presse, 04/09/2005)