Saddam Trial: What Happens Next?

The completion of the Dujail trial does not mean that Saddam's days as a defendant are over.

He and six other former Ba'ath party officials, including Chemcial Ali, are also on trial on charges of genocide relating to the killing of at least 50,000 people during the notorious Anfal operation against the Kurds in 1988.

Dujail was chosen as the first and most straightforward of a dozen dossiers being prepared for trial by the Iraqi high tribunal. In addition to Anfal, they include the gassing of Kurds in Halabja, the invasion and occupation of Kuwait, the suppression of the 1991 Shia uprising, the draining of the southern marshes, the ethnic cleansing of ethnic Persians from Iraq to Iran, and the unlawful killing of political opponents.

Senior Shia government figures in particular have said they want to see Saddam Hussein and others stand trial for the brutal quelling of the 1991 Shia rebellion.

It remains unclear whether any of the outstanding cases will make it to court, or whether Saddam will be around to see them. According to the law, he may not even live to see a verdict in the Anfal trial, which still has months to go.There is nothing in the law which prevents the guilty in one trial being executed even though they are defendants in another.

"If he does, it will likely be a result of political rather than legal considerations," said a US advisor to the tribunal. "For example, if the tribunal considers it important enough for the Kurds to see justice done."

The old Iraqi law gave the president of Iraq the authority to commute a death sentence, but in this case that provision is made redundant by an article in the special law established for the tribunal, which says "no authority, including the president of the republic, may grant a pardon or mitigate the punishment issued by the court". But before any sentence is carried out, the convicted men - and indeed the prosecution - have the right to lodge an appeal against the verdict, the notification of which must be made within 15 days. Even if an appeal has not been lodged, if the court has issued a sentence of death or life imprisonment, then it must send a file on the case to the court of cassation, within 10 days of the judgment, for review.

A nine-member appeals chamber will consider the application's merits according to whether there have been any errors of law, procedure or fact. Submission of briefs and oral arguments will be allowed. Punishments must be executed within 30 days of the date when the judgment becomes final and non-appealable. Court officials say, however, that the appeals chamber may not issue its decision until spring 2007.

During the trial, Saddam had demanded that he face a firing squad. "Saddam Hussein is a military commander and should be shot by bullets," he said.

But officials at the Iraqi high tribunal say that Saddam is being tried as a civilian, and that under the law that means he faces death by hanging, provided the conviction is upheld on appeal.

Paragraph 86 of the Iraqi penal code states it matter of factly: "The death penalty is the hanging of the condemned person by the neck until he is dead."

Judge Rizgar Amin, who presided over the first half of the Dujail trial, said any executions would probably be carried out in prison.

"There must be a prosecutor, a judge, a doctor, the prison director and a representative of the interior ministry present," he said. "The condemned can also ask a member of the clergy to attend."

The prison authorities are also required to inform the relatives of the condemned person so that they can visit on the day before execution. No executions may be conducted on official or religious holidays.

The verdict would first be read out and officially recorded. The condemned person then has the right to make a final statement, which the judge must record.

Once the sentence has been carried out, the body is either handed over to relatives, or buried by the prison authorities at government expense, but with no funeral ceremony.