Saddam Faces Second Murder Trial
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
BAGHDAD, Iraq – Saddam Hussein is to face a second trial, starting on August 21, for the genocide of thousands of Iraqi Kurds, it was announced in Baghdad yesterday.
The deposed leader and six of his closest associates – including his cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid – will be in the dock together, accused of mounting a concerted campaign of extermination against the Kurds in the north in 1988.
An estimated 100,000 Kurds died in the mass executions and disappearances, known as the Anfal campaign.
Saddam and seven others are already near the end of a first trial, which has dragged on since October, for the killing of 148 Shiites from Dujail, north of Baghdad, after a failed assassination attempt there in 1982.
The verdict in the Dujail case is expected around the end of next month, after the defense presents its final arguments and the court adjourns to deliberate.
The prosecution has demanded the death sentence for Saddam and two of the other defendants in that case.
