BAGHDAD, Sept 2: The trial of Iraq’s former president Saddam Hussein will open in the second half of next month, an official said on Friday. The official said Saddam’s trial ‘will begin in the second half of October’, after the referendum on the constitution takes place on Oct 15.

There was no official word from the Iraqi Special Tribunal, which is tasked with trying Saddam and his henchmen, and it was not known how long this first trial would last. The Iraqi Special Tribunal said In July he would first face charges related to the 1982 killing of 143 residents of the village of Dujail, northeast of Baghdad, where he had been the target of a failed assassination bid.—AFP