JURIST - Paper Chase: Saddam could be tried posthumously if executed on Dujail charges: US official

[JURIST] Saddam Hussein [JURIST news archive] could continue to be tried posthumously if he is found guilty and sentenced to death for crimes against humanity charges [JURIST report] stemming from a crackdown in the Iraqi town of Dujail, according to a US official. Hussein's second trial [JURIST report] is scheduled to begin Monday, but a verdict has not yet been returned in the first case. The Iraqi High Tribunal is set to deliver a verdict on the Dujail charges on October 16, and Hussein is eligible for the death penalty [JURIST report]. Should Hussein be sentenced to death or life in prison, he is entitled to an automatic appeal. If a death sentence is upheld on appeal, the sentence must be carried out within 30 days, and this could occur before Hussein's second trial is concluded.

In the new trial, Hussein and six co-defendants are charged with genocide and crimes against humanity [JURIST report] in connection to the so-called "Anfal" operation [HRW backgrounder] that led to the killings of as many as 100,000 Kurds in northern Iraq in the 1980s. Iraq President Jalal Talabani [BBC profile] has called for Hussein to be tried on all charges before any verdict is enforced. Talabani has previously expressed opposition to the death penalty, saying last year that he would refuse to sign a death warrant for Hussein [JURIST report]. AFP has more.

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