TEHRAN, 6 September 2005 — The head of Iran’s judiciary announced yesterday the Islamic republic was preparing its own charges against former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, arguing that Iraqi prosecutors had failed to lay sufficient charges against him. The official news agency IRNA said Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahrudi has “ordered the prosecutor general to prepare an indictment against Saddam for his crimes during the eight year Iran-Iraq war and to put it through legal channels.”
“What is important for the (Iranian) judiciary are the rights that were lost by Iranian citizens during the eight-year sacred defense war, those who lost their loved ones and the many war veterans who were wounded by chemical weapons,” Shahrudi was quoted as saying.
Shahrudi also criticized “the fact that Saddam’s crimes against human rights during the war and his continuation of such crimes in Halabja and Kurdistan are not among the accusations brought up in this trial.”
Iraqi officials announced Sunday that Saddam will go on trial on Oct. 19 over the massacre of Shiite villagers more than two decades ago, and an Iraqi government spokesman added that he could be executed for that crime without facing further charges. “For Saddam, this indictment is too insignificant and petty,” Shahrudi said, urging Iraqi prosecutors “to prepare a real indictment” so that the trial will not be viewed as being “directed by the global arrogance” — or the United States.
