Iraqi investigators have announced that the country's ex-dictator, Saddam Hussein, has been accused of genocide. The charges against Saddam and six of his co-defendants stem from incidents that took place in the late 1980s in the Anfal campaign against the Kurds. Government prosecutors are now ready to procede with a trial although no start date has been announced at this time.
Ra'id Juhi, Iraq's chief investigative judge, said that the prosecution was ready to go ahead with their case against Saddam after interviewing witnesses and gathering evidence.
The Anfal campaign included the infamous gassing of more than 5,000 civilians in the town of Halabja in 1988 but Juhi said that incident was not specifically included in the new charges against Saddam. A separate case would be brought against the ex-Iraqi dictator and his co-defendants regarding that incident.
It is estimated that the total number of Iraqis killed by Saddam's government during the Anfal campaign range from 50,000 to almost 200,000.
The new charges may be irrelevant. Presently, Saddam is on trial for crimes against humanity for incidents that took place in the town of Dujail after a failed 1982 assassination attempt took place in that city. If he is found guilty on those charges, Saddam faces the death penalty which would render additional charges and trials against him and his co-defendants moot.
It is also possible that trials on more than one case will be brought against Saddam simultaneously.
Saddam's trial arising from the Dujail incident is scheduled to resume on Wednesday of this week.
