Iraq Says Saddam To Be Tried On 12 Charges

5 June 2005 -- A spokesman for Iraq's prime minister says Saddam Hussein could face up to 500 charges, but will be tried on only 12 because prosecuting him on all would be a "waste of time."

Laith Kuba told a news conference in Baghdad on 5 June that Saddam is likely to be tried within the next two months. He said the 12 charges included alleged crimes committed in Iraqi Kurdistan.

No exact date has been set for the trial. Saddam is being held in a U.S.-run detention facility in Baghdad since being captured in December 2003.

He was arraigned last July in Baghdad on charges including killing rival politicians over 30 years, gassing Kurds in the northern town of Halabja in 1988, invading Kuwait in 1990, and suppressing the Kurdish and Shi'ite uprising.

(AP)