Iraqis Take Custody of Hussein

BAGHDAD —  Iraq’s new government took legal custody of Saddam Hussein on Wednesday and moved to reinstate the death penalty in preparation for today’s arraignment of the former president and 11 members of his regime on charges that include genocide and war crimes.

“Today at 10:15 a.m., the Republic of Iraq assumed legal custody of Saddam Hussein,” the office of interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said in a one-line statement.

The transfer of Hussein and his top lieutenants from U.S. to Iraqi custody had no effect on their physical incarceration. Because the Iraqi government lacks a suitable detention facility for such high-profile prisoners, they will remain at a U.S.-run compound near Baghdad. But their status changed from prisoners of war, with all the rights granted by the Geneva Convention, to criminal detainees of the Iraqi government.

Meanwhile, rebels ambushed a tank on the road to Baghdad’s international airport after nightfall, setting fire to the armored checkpoint presumed to be manned by U.S. forces patrolling the area. There was no immediate word of casualties. Earlier, at a nearby military base, insurgents lobbed at least 10 mortar rounds into the compound, wounding 11 soldiers.

But Wednesday -- originally scheduled as the day for the hand-over of sovereignty before U.S. officials pushed the ceremony forward to Monday -- was remarkably devoid of the heavy casualties threatened by insurgents. For the first time in recent memory, it was a day with neither U.S. military nor Iraqi fatalities.

“Perhaps the early announcement of the transfer of sovereignty disrupted some operational plans” of the insurgents, a senior official with the U.S.-led multinational forces said. “It may be that the attack plans were not for today, they were not for yesterday, they weren’t for the day before, but they are still coming.”

There was no fresh word on the fates of two American soldiers held by insurgents.

A day earlier, an Arabic-language television channel broadcast videotape it said showed the execution of Spc. Keith M. Maupin of Ohio, but military investigators who examined the grainy tape have been unable to confirm that its subject is the 20-year-old soldier held captive since an April 9 ambush. No body was discovered overnight, as has occurred shortly after previous killings of coalition troops.

Maupin’s family and friends have clung to hope that the victim on the tape was someone other than the Ohioan, who was promoted from private first class to specialist during his absence.

The military has reclassified the status of Marine Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun from “missing” to “captured.” A native of Lebanon last seen with his unit about 10 days ago, Hassoun appeared blindfolded with a sword at the back of his head in a videotape shown on Al Jazeera late Sunday. His captors threatened to behead him if the occupation force failed to release all Iraqi prisoners within 72 hours.

A U.S. officer said it was “highly unlikely” Hassoun was abducted from his base but declined to speculate on how he might have fallen into the hands of his captors.

During the brief custody transfer of the 12 leaders of the former regime Wednesday, Hussein asked an attending judge if he could ask a question and was told to save it for today’s arraignment, Reuters reported.

Ali Hassan Majid, known as “Chemical Ali” for his suspected role in a 1988 chemical attack on a Kurdish village, was visibly trembling, the news agency reported.

The 67-year-old Hussein looked “shrunken” and disoriented, said Salem Chalabi, executive director of the Iraqi Special Tribunal, who witnessed the jailhouse appearance.

Today’s courtroom session to air the charges against Hussein will offer Iraqis the first glimpse of their deposed leader since his December capture by the U.S. Army. Coalition footage of him at the time showed a disheveled, gray-bearded figure being examined by military medics.

In Amman, the Jordanian capital, one of the lawyers hired by Hussein’s wife to defend him denounced the proceedings as illegal. “This is a mockery of justice. We are facing clear legal violations.... The allegation that this is going to be a fair trial is baseless,” Mohammed Rashdan told journalists.

The defendants will probably be called to answer charges of killing thousands of their countrymen and abusing millions. If convicted, they are expected to face the death penalty.

L. Paul Bremer III, the U.S. civilian administrator who left Iraq less than two hours after ceding authority to Allawi’s government Monday, had suspended capital punishment shortly after his May 2003 arrival. In the volatile and chaotic atmosphere after the fall of Baghdad, occupation authorities feared that executions might be perceived as revenge taking, and European allies of the U.S. oppose the practice on moral grounds.

Allawi’s Cabinet revoked the suspension late Tuesday, officials in the prime minister’s office and the Justice Ministry said. “Bremer suspended the death penalty, but it was not abolished. So we don’t need to enact it, we just need to remove the suspension,” said one official, who requested anonymity. “We have done everything to prepare this.”

At the same gathering, the government drew up a slate of emergency measures to frustrate insurgents and give fledgling police and defense forces broader powers of search and detention.

In addition, officials fine-tuned an amnesty plan intended to lure Iraqi supporters of the insurgency away from more radical foreign militants.