Iran sends charges against Saddam to Iraqi court

Iran said it has sent its own charges against Saddam Hussein to the court trying the former Iraqi leader, including that of using…

Iran said it has sent its own charges against Saddam Hussein to the court trying the former Iraqi leader, including that of using chemical weapons  against Iranian civilians in the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war.

Justice Minister Jamal Karimirad said the petition was sent via Iran's foreign ministry to the Baghdad court where the trial of the former Iraqi president will start on Wednesday.

"The plaintiff is the entire Iranian nation," Karimirad told a news conference.

He said Iran wanted Saddam charged with invading Iraq in 1980, and with "using chemical weapons, genocide, crimes against humanity..."

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While officially opposed to the US-led war on Iraq in 2003, Iran was overjoyed at Saddam's downfall and capture.

But there was dismay in Iran when no charges were levelled against Saddam relating to the Iran-Iraq war, in which more than 500,000 Iranians were killed and hundreds of thousands wounded.

Iranian lawyers have spent months preparing a dossier against Saddam and Karimirad said more information would be handed over to the Baghdad court later.

He did not detail the charges, but many of them are likely to involve Iraq's use of nerve and mustard gas during the war.

"There is enough evidence to prove that Saddam violated international treaties," the minister said.