BAGHDAD- Saddam Hussein will be handed over to Iraqi justice on Wednesday, two days after Iraq formally regained sovereign powers from U.S.-British occupiers
In accordance with Iraqi law, Saddam and 11 of his senior lieutenants will be taken to an Iraqi court later in the day to be told they will be charged on Thursday, an official in interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's office said.
"Tomorrow Saddam and 11 others will be officially charged," added the official. "The focus at this point will be on Saddam and tomorrow's proceedings will mark the start of his trial."
The U.S. military will still guard Saddam and his 11 former aides despite their transfer into Iraqi legal custody. The official said the Iraqi judges would decide if the proceedings against them would be televised.
Saddam will be charged with crimes against humanity for a 1988 massacre of Kurds, the 1990 invasion of Kuwait and the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, said Salem Chalabi, a lawyer leading the work of a tribunal that will try the former dictator.
French lawyer Emmanuel Ludot, one of a 20-strong team appointed by Saddam's wife to represent him, said the former president would refuse to acknowledge any court or any judge.
"It will be a court of vengeance, a settling of scores," Ludot told France Info radio, saying any judge sitting in the court would be under pressure to find Saddam guilty. Ludot said he expected Saddam to say last year's U.S.-led war was illegal.
Former Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz and Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as "Chemical Ali" for his role in using chemical weapons, are among those to be turned over to Iraqi legal custody with Saddam, an Interior Ministry official said.
CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY
Those former officials and others among the 55 most wanted Iraqis on a U.S. list are seen as witnesses who could help prove a chain of command linking Saddam to crimes against humanity.
Among others expected to be handed over are Barzan Ibrahim Hasan al-Tikriti, Saddam's half-brother and adviser; Abid Hamid Mahmud al-Tikriti, presidential secretary; Sabawi Ibrahim, Saddam's maternal half-brother; Watban Ibrahim Hasan al-Tikriti, Saddam's half-brother and adviser; and Aziz Salih Numan, Baath Party regional commander and head of the party militia.
Saddam, accused by Iraqis of ordering the killing and torture of thousands of people during 35 years of Baathist rule, has been held as a prisoner of war since U.S. forces found him hiding in a hole near his hometown of Tikrit in December.
Government offices were shut on Wednesday for a new national holiday declared to mark the transfer of sovereignty.
Allawi's new interim government wants to show ordinary Iraqis that the 14-month occupation is really over, while also proving it can curb violence still blighting the country.
Insurgents fired six to 10 mortar rounds that landed north of Baghdad international airport on Wednesday, wounding six soldiers of a U.S.-led force, a U.S. military spokesman said.
A suspected bomb exploded in the southern town of Samawa, where Japanese and Dutch troops are deployed, but there were no reports of serious casualties, witnesses said. The explosion was not close to the Japanese military camp.
Three U.S. marines were killed in a roadside bomb blast in Baghdad on Tuesday, raising to 632 the number of U.S. soldiers killed in action since the U.S.-led invasion in March last year.
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