BAGHDAD - Saddam HusseinÂ’s trial on genocide charges resumes in Baghdad Monday with more Kurdish witnesses testifying one week after a human rights watchdog highlighted what it called fundamental flaws in the deposed Iraqi presidentÂ’s first trial.Lawyers for Saddam and six co-defendants are expected to present their witness list during the 23rd hearing of a trial that began on August 21 and was temporarily adjourned on November 8.
The seven men are accused of responsibility for the deaths of 182,000 Kurds during the so-called Anfal campaign, when government troops swept through Iraqi Kurdistan in 1988, burning and bombing thousands of villages. Saddam and his former aides argue that it was a legitimate counter-insurgency operation against Kurdish separatists at a time when the country was at war with its neighbour Iran.
The accused — including Saddam’s cousin Ali Hassan Al Majid, known as “Chemical Ali” — all face the death penalty if convicted. Saddam and Majid are the only defendants facing a charge of genocide, however.
