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  • Jan 6th, 2004
  • Comments Off on Kuwait prepares up to 200 indictments against Saddam
Kuwait has completed 178 major indictments against Saddam Hussein and his top aides for war crimes committed during Iraq's 1990-1991 occupation of the emirate, the justice minister announced Monday.

"We expect the indictments to reach 200. We have already completed 178 indictment files against Saddam and his aides. They will be presented to the Iraqi authorities," Ahmed Baqer told reporters outside parliament.

Baqer said the indictments were prepared by a specialist committee formed 10 years ago and chaired by the public prosecutor.

The committee recently asked Baqer to establish contacts with the Iraqi war crimes tribunal which Iraq's US-installed interim Governing Council decided to establish last month, the minister said.

Kuwait wants to know how the Iraqi tribunals will operate and how the indictments should be submitted.

Baqer also said the Kuwaiti cabinet has agreed to a request submitted by the US-led coalition forces to train Iraqi judges in the emirate.

Saddam Hussein, whom the coalition captured on December 13, ordered his army to invade Kuwait on August 2, 1990, occupying it for seven months before being driven out by a US-led multinational coalition.

Kuwait charges Iraqi troops committed numerous war crimes during the invasion, including the killing of at least 1,000 civilians, detaining thousands of prisoners, perpetrating widescale torture and confiscating property.

Since the April ouster of Saddam's regime, the emirate has identified the remains of 61 Kuwaitis and third party nationals found in mass graves in Iraq following their disappearance or being taken prisoner during the occupation.

More than 500, the majority of them Kuwaiti, are still unaccounted for.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2004


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