JURIST - Paper Chase: Iraqi tribunal names chief judge for second Saddam trial

[JURIST] Judge Abdullah al-Amiri, a Shiite judge, will preside over the second Saddam Hussein trial [JURIST news archive] by the Iraqi High Tribunal, this one involving the so-called "Anfal" operation [HRW backgrounder] that killed 100,000 Kurds in northern Iraq in the 1980s. In the new trial, scheduled to begin on August 21 [JURIST report], Hussein and six co-defendants are charged with genocide and crimes against humanity [JURIST report]. Munqith Takleef al-Firuan will serve as the chief prosecutor, a court official said Sunday.

Hussein's first trial, on charges of crimes against humanity stemming from the alleged execution of 148 Shiites in response to a 1982 assassination attempt in Dujail, has been adjourned until October 16 [JURIST reports]. Both sides have presented closing arguments and are awaiting a verdict for Hussein and seven co-defendants. The prosecution called for the death penalty, while court-appointed lawyers presented the closing arguments for Hussein and some of his co-defendants because their defense team boycotted trial proceedings in protest of poor security after the murder of a defense lawyer in June [JURIST reports]. AP has more.

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