British official expects postponement of Saddam trial

A British official expected that the trial of the toppled Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, which was due to start later this month, to be postponed until after the elections due to be carried out by the end of the current year.

The official who asked to be anonymous told journalists in London that there are logistic problems and other many details which are not settled yet, noting that so far, no decision has been taken over the program to protect witnesses.

The Iraqi private court is currently working to complete preparations to start the trial of Saddam Hussein and many of his Aides on October 19th in the question of al-Dajil Massacres north of Baghdad in 1982.

Last Monday, the court disclosed names of the accused persons who will be tried with Saddam. They are Barazan Ibrahim al-Hassan, brother for Saddam, the former vice president Taha Yassin Ramadan, deputy chairman of the former presidency divan Awwad Hamad al-Bandar; Abdullah Kazem al-Rweid and Ali Dayeh Ali, Muhammad Azzam al-Ali and Muzhir Abdullah al-Rweid.

The spokesman for the Iraqi government Leith Kebbeh announced earlier that the accusations addressed to those persons is "executing 143 Iraqis and detaining other 399 from another family, demolishing and leveling houses and lands." This was aftergunfire targeted the procession of president Saddam Hussein in al-Dajil area in 1982.