FACTBOX-Trials and charges against Saddam Hussein
Source: Reuters
Dec 30 (Reuters) - Saddam Hussein was hanged on Saturday for crimes against humanity. The following are details of the Dujail case for which he was hanged, a second trial in which he was charged with genocide and other possible trials he had faced. The hanging closes the book on legal proceedings against him. * DUJAIL -- FOUND GUILTY OF WILFUL KILLING, TORTURE AND OTHER CRIMES AND SENTENCED TO DEATH. In Dujail, a Shi'ite farming village about 70 km (40 miles) north of Baghdad, local young men tried but failed to assassinate Saddam in 1982 as his motorcade passed through. Prosecutors said Saddam sought revenge, ordering his commanders to hunt down, torture and kill 148 villagers. Women and children were alleged to have been forcibly removed from Dujail, imprisoned and later sent to a desert internment camp where many disappeared. The village's farmlands, rich date palm and fruit groves on the banks of the Tigris, were salted and laid waste. * ANFAL -- CHARGED WITH GENOCIDE Iraqi government forces launched a drive in 1987 and 1988 to reassert control over Kurdish areas in the north. The campaign, dubbed "Anfal" or "Spoils of War", saw whole villages flattened, farming destroyed and inhabitants forcibly removed. Estimates of deaths range from tens of thousands to over 100,000. Saddam's cousin, General Ali Hassan al-Majid, also known as "Chemical Ali", is accused of carrying out the worst of the atrocities. The defence has said government forces targeted Kurdish rebels who sided with Iran during the 1980-1988 war. The trial started in August and will continue for Majid and five other co-defendants though charges against Saddam, including the most serious charge of genocide, lapse. OTHER POSSIBLE TRIALS THAT NEVER CAME TO COURT: * HALABJA The chemical attack on the village of Halabja in March 1988, which killed 5,000 people, which is not seen as part of Anfal. * INVASION OF KUWAIT Saddam is accused of violating international law by ordering the invasion of Kuwait in August 1990. A U.S.-led coalition demanded Iraq's withdrawal and went to war on Jan. 17, 1991, after Saddam refused to comply with U.N. resolutions. The war ended on Feb. 28 after Iraq's expulsion from the emirate. During the occupation Iraqi soldiers are alleged to have tortured and summarily executed prisoners, looted Kuwait City and taken hundreds of Kuwaiti captives back to Baghdad. Iraqi soldiers also set more than 700 oil wells ablaze and opened pipelines to let oil pour into the Gulf and other water sources. * MARSH ARABS Saddam's army is alleged to have systematically destroyed the livelihood of Iraq's Marsh Arab people, who have inhabited southeastern marshlands at the confluence of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers for nearly 5,000 years. Saddam accused the Marsh Arabs of desertion and fighting against his forces during the 1980-88 war with Iran, of harbouring criminals and dissenters, and of joining the Shi'ite uprising in 1991. Saddam targeted the Marsh Arabs early in his rule when he ordered their habitat to be drained. * POLITICAL KILLINGS Saddam and his security forces were accused of numerous politically motivated killings and other human rights abuses, including the execution of five Shi'ite religious leaders in 1974, the murder of thousands of members of the Kurdish Barzani clan in 1983 and the assassinations of political activists. * POLITICAL REPRESSION Saddam was accused of brutally suppressing uprisings by majority Shi'ites in southern Iraq and ethnic Kurds in the north. Scores of mass graves south of Baghdad are said to contain the bodies of Shi'ites. Hundreds of thousands of Kurds fled to Iran and Turkey. There are Kurdish mass graves in the north and in deserted areas of the south.
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