Court that sentenced Saddam to hold uprising trial

BAGHDAD, Aug 16 (Reuters) The Iraqi special court that sentenced Saddam Hussein to death will try 15 people on Aug. 21 for the suppression of a Shi'ite uprising in the wake of the 1991 Gulf War, the chief prosecutor said today.

Those on trial include Saddam's cousin Ali Hassan al-Majeed, dubbed ''Chemical Ali'' by Saddam's opponents for his role in the gassing of Kurdish villages, Chief Prosecutor Jaafar Moussawi told Reuters.

Saddam's half brother Sabawi Ibrahim al-Hassan, his private secretary Abed Hameed Hamoud, former defence minister Sultan Hashim, former army chief staff Hussein Rasheed and former chief of military intelligence Saber al-Douri will also stand trial.

The new trial will be presided over by Judge Mohammed Ureibi al-Khalifa, who heard the court's second case, which covered the ''Anfal'' or ''spoils of war'' campaign against Kurds in the 1980s.

Majeed, Hashim and Rasheed were sentenced to death on June 24 over the Anfal case. A nine-member panel is hearing their appeals and is expected to reach a decision soon. If their sentences are upheld they must be hanged within 30 days.

Saddam was hanged last December after receiving a death sentence in the tribunal's first trial, which covered the deaths of Shi'ites killed after an assassination attempt on Saddam in 1982.

The third trial will cover the killings that followed revolts in the Shi'ite-dominated cities of Basra and Nasiriyah, which broke out in March 1991 as demoralised Iraqi Army troops returned from Iraq's defeat in the Gulf War.

Tens of thousands of Shi'ites were executed in brutal crackdowns around the holy Shi'ite cities of Najaf and Kerbala and in the Hilla and Basra regions.

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