BAGHDAD, Sept 4: Former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein and seven of his former associates will go on trial on Oct 19 over the massacre of 143 people in the village of Dujail, a government official announced on Sunday.

“In view of recent leaks to the press and in the absence of an official spokesman for the tribunal, I have been authorized to announce that the trial of Saddam Hussein will begin on Oct 19,” government spokesman Laith Kubba told a news conference.

Saddam and seven others will be tried by Iraq’s special tribunal in connection with the 1982 killing of 143 residents in Dujail, northeast of Baghdad, where he had been the target of a failed assassination bid.

Saddam is also later expected to face separate trials on further counts of crimes against humanity, particularly about the gassing of Kurds and the mass killings of Shias in the south of the country.

The 68-year-old Saddam, who was ousted in April 2003 and captured by US forces in December of that year, could face death penalty if found guilty.

Those who will stand trial include former vice-president Taha Yassin Ramadan, former intelligence chief Barzan Ibrahim Hassan al-Tikriti, a Saddam half-brother, and Awad Ahmad al-Bandar, a former deputy chief in Saddam’s cabinet.

The other four — Abdullah Khadem Ruweid, Mezhar Abdullah Ruweid, Ali Daeh and Mohammad Azzam al-Ali — are responsible for the Dujail area.

They will be tried for the murder of 143 Iraqi citizens, the jailing of 399 families, the demolition of houses and the forced exile of a number of Shia villagers, Kubba said.—AFP