Saddam to be handed over soon

Toppled dictator Saddam Hussein will be handed over to Iraqi officials before the June 30 handover of power to face a trial and possible death sentence, a top lawyer coordinating the trial said yesterday.

"The coalition forces now have more than 100 detained former regime officials," Salem Chalabi told reporters in Kuwait. "They will be transferred to us before the transfer of power, and they include Saddam Hussein, Ali Hassan al-Majid and Tareq Aziz."

Mr Aziz was Iraq's former deputy prime minister under Saddam. Majid, known as "Chemical Ali" for his role in deadly chemical attacks against Iraqi Kurds at Halabja in 1988, was Saddam's feared cousin and commander of southern Iraq.

Washington has pledged to hand sovereignty to an unelected Iraqi government by June 30.

There was no immediate confirmation from US officials about a handover of Saddam, or from International Red Cross officials, who visited him at a secret prison in Iraq in April.

But an official familiar with international law, speaking on condition of anonymity, said handing over Saddam and the others might not comply with international agreements.

She said a prisoner of war must be handed over to a sovereign government, but Iraq will not have a sovereign government until July 1, when the US transfers power.

Also, a prisoner of war must be transferred to an authority which has signed the Geneva Convention, something Iraq did in 1956, although it hasn't signed subsequent protocols.