KUWAIT CITY - Kuwait wants former Iraqi President
Saddam Hussein and his detained former aides sentenced to death for alleged crimes committed during
Iraq's 1990 invasion of this oil-rich state, a Justice Ministry official said Sunday.
Kuwait, which was occupied for seven months before being liberated during the U.S.-led 1991
Gulf War, has completed a file detailing the charges it wants Iraqi authorities to try Saddam on, Kuwaiti Justice Minister
Ahmed Baqer was quoted as saying by Kuwait's state-run news agency, KUNA.
"Asking for the death penalty is based on numerous crimes committed by the former Iraqi regime," Baqer said late Saturday,
becoming the highest level Kuwaiti official to call for Saddam's execution.
Saddam, who was captured in December 2003, and several former members of his regime will stand trial Oct. 19 in the Iraq
Special Tribunal on charges of ordering the 1982 massacre of about 150 Iraqis in Dujail, north of Baghdad.
Iraqi authorities also have accused Saddam of killing rival politicians during his 30-year rule, gassing Kurds, invading
Kuwait and suppressing Kurdish and Shiite uprisings in 1991 after the Gulf War that liberated Kuwait.
Kuwait has notified Iraq of charges against Saddam and more than 300 former regime members.
The counts include kidnapping, murder, torture, theft and damaging the environment. Kuwait also alleges that senior Iraqi
officials ordered — in writing — the theft and destruction of the country's archives and that Iraqis sabotaged
some 700 oil wells before their troops withdrew from the country as U.S. forces advanced on them.
Kuwait was the launching area for the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, and it was the only Arab country that supported it
openly. Ties with Baghdad resumed after Saddam's regime was overthrown.
