The special tribunal developed to look into Suddam Husseins actions post his 1982 assassination attempt, released a video today of Hussein and some of his administration, being questioned on the massacre of dozens of men from a small Shiite village. The Presiding Judge was Raad Jouhi and upon release stated it had been filmed on Sunday.
The killings from 1982 in Dujail are a smaller incident in relation to other things the ex-dictator has been accused of in the last several months, but should prove to be a good test case for prosecution.
One spokesman for the new elected government stated earlier this month that it was interested in the death penalty for Suddam Hussein for his actions at Dujail and that it did not matter what other charges would follow. It is also believed that it will be easier to link evidence to Hussein on the Dujail incident, which makes it a start point for his prosecution.
It is alleged that Suddam Hussein ordered the deaths of more then 100 people as a reprisal for an assassination attempt made on him as his Motorcade passed through in July 1982. The executions were accompanied by the villages date crops being burnt to the ground and hundreds fled to the south of Iraq.
Saddam’s half-brother Barzan al-Tikriti and former vice-president Taha Yassin Ramadan have both been said to be willing to testify against Saddam and have said that he ordered the villages pillaging.
4 other people were mentioned today by the tribunal in its address including , Barzan Abdel Ghafoor, Commander of the Special Republican Guard, one of Suddam Hussein’s cousin, and former Air Defense Commander, Muzahim Saab al-Hassan. All above were questioned about the 1988 Anfal campaign against the Kurds, where poison gas killed 5000 civilians.
