Judges Chosen For Saddam's Trial

The names of the prosecutors and judges who will try Saddam Hussein and his Baath Party inner circle will remain secret until pretrial questioning begins, in an effort to protect them from supporters of the ousted leader, the tribunal's head said Wednesday.

The questioning could start in two or three months, though no date has been set for the trial itself, said Salem Chalabi, the court's newly appointed top executive.

Seven judges and four prosecutors have been named, but their identities have not been disclosed "for security reasons" and will not be revealed until "the investigation officially begins with the defendants," Chalabi told The Associated Press.

Five judges have been killed since the fall of Saddam's regime a year ago, mostly for ties with the U.S. -led coalition.

The choice of Chalabi to put together the all-Iraqi court places the Iraqi National Congress -- headed by his uncle, Ahmad Chalabi -- in the forefront of the high-profile trial of Saddam.

Ahmad Chalabi, a member of the Iraqi Governing Council who during decades of exile was a prominent opponent of Saddam, is distrusted by many Iraqis who see him as outsider. Observers have said there may be a move to shake up the court when a new government takes power on June 30.

Salem Chalabi, a U.S.-educated lawyer, said prosecutors are beginning to collect evidence for the trials.

No defense lawyer has yet been appointed to represent Saddam and it is not clear when a trial could begin, said Chalabi, who is the court's executive head but does not serve as a judge. His selection for the post by the Governing Council was announced Tuesday.

"We are going to be meeting with all the defendants in the next couple of months ... and giving them copies of the statute of the tribunal, informing them of what their rights are, whether they want to appoint counsel," Chalabi said in an interview with Associated Press Television News.

"We are trying to give defendants equal rights to those which exist in Western countries," he said.

Saddam, who was captured by U.S. troops in December, is being kept at an undisclosed location in or near Baghdad where he is undergoing CIA and FBI interrogation.

Iraqis have been eager to see the prosecution of Saddam, whose regime brutally persecuted political opponents, and minority Kurds and Shiite Muslims. Saddam's military also used chemical weapons against troops and civilians during the Iran-Iraq war and a Kurdish uprising.

U.S. Justice Department prosecutors and investigators have been gathering evidence for a war crimes case against Saddam, while other international groups have been sifting through the mass graves where U.S. officials say 300,000 victims of Saddam's regime were buried.

The tribunal will be made up only of Iraqis. Its judges and prosecutors will be trained in international and war crimes law and will look at the experiences of bodies such as the Rwanda war crimes tribunal.

But the INC's role in the court could be challenged in the future, after a new government is installed on June 30.

U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi has proposed that government be made up of technocrats and that the current Governing Council be dissolved.

If Chalabi's status is diminished in that handover, "there is a very good chance ... this court may see a change in its membership," said Adeed Dawisha, professor of political science at Miami University in Ohio.

By Bassem Mroue