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Iraq
Hussein questioned for new case
Associated Press
Published July 30, 2005
BAGHDAD - Investigators grilled Saddam Hussein about his role in the brutal suppression of a Shiite uprising in 1991 as they sought to build another criminal case against the ousted dictator, Iraqi officials said Friday.
Hussein answered questions at a 45-minute hearing Thursday in the presence of an Iraqi defense lawyer, said Raid Juhi, the Iraqi special tribunal's chief investigative judge.
The former leader was asked about the tens of thousands of Shiites and Kurds believed to have been killed in the wake of the uprising that erupted after U.S.-led forces drove the Iraqi army from Kuwait in the Gulf War. Many Shiites mistakenly believed the United States would support them in their revolt against Hussein.
Juhi said he thinks he is close to concluding the criminal inquiry into Hussein's crackdown against Shiites in southern Iraq, as well as his campaign during the late 1980s to force Iraqi Kurds from wide areas of the north.
A trial date should be announced soon - the first of about a dozen trials that Hussein and former regime officials are expected to face, Juhi said.
The former president is expected to be charged with at least 13 crimes for which he could face the death penalty.
Hussein, 68, has been jailed under American control at a U.S. military detention complex near Baghdad International Airport.
[Last modified July 30, 2005, 01:10:15]
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