The deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and seven other officials go on trial today charged with crimes against humanity. The following are brief profiles of the defendants:
SADDAM HUSSEIN:Aged 68. Strongman after the 1968 Baath party coup, he formally took over the presidency in 1979, ruling with absolute authority and often brutal force. A U.S. ally when he fought Islamic revolutionary Iran for eight years during the 1980s, Saddam became an enemy after invading Kuwait in 1990.
After US-led forces expelled Iraqi troops from Kuwait, Iraq was placed under international sanctions. After US and British forces invaded in March 2003, Saddam went on the run. He was captured near his hometown Tikrit on Dec. 13, 2003.
TAHA YASSIN RAMADAN:Born 1938. Vice president until 2003, Ramadan first met Saddam after joining the Baath party in the mid-1950s and eventually rose to become a hardline member of the president's inner circle. He held several senior positions, including industry minister in the 1970s. He was once reported to have said: "I don't know anything about industry. All I know is that anyone who doesn't work hard will be executed."
Iraqi exiles accused him and other officials of brutally stamping out a Shia Muslim uprising in the south in 1991 and killing thousands of Kurds in the north in 1988.
No. 20 on the U.S. military's list of the 55 most wanted Iraqis when they invaded, Ramadan was captured in August 2003 in the northern city of Mosul by Kurdish guerrillas.
BARZAN IBRAHIM AL-TIKRITI:One of Saddam's three younger half-brothers. Former head of feared Mukhabarat intelligence service and adviser to Saddam. No. 38 on the most-wanted list, Barzan was captured in April 2003. As head of the intelligence service, he was accused of ordering mass murder and torture, and of personally taking part in human rights abuses, including the destruction of villages. US officials described Barzan as a member of what they called Saddam's "Dirty Dozen".
AWAD HAMED AL-BANDERFormer chief judge in Saddam's Revolutionary Court, which is accused of organising show trials that often led to summary death sentences. Bander was the judge in charge of trying many of more than 140 Shia men accused of trying to assassinate Saddam as his motorcade drove through the village of Dujail in July 1982. Some were killed in fighting. Bander sentenced many others to be executed.
ABDULLAH KADHEM RUAID:Local Baath party official in the Dujail area.
ALI DAEEM ALI:Local Baath party official in the Dujail area.
MOHAMMED AZAWI ALI:Local Baath party official in the Dujail area.
MIZHER ABDULLAH RAWED:Local Baath party official in the Dujail area.