Saddam Hussein Goes on Trial for Crimes Against Humanity - New York Times

By EDWARD WONG and JOHN F. BURNS
Published: October 19, 2005

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Oct. 19 - Iraqi judges and prosecutors assembled this morning in a heavily guarded compound in central Baghdad as Saddam Hussein and seven defendants prepared to face charges in a 1982 massacre, beginning the long process of public reckoning for the decades of brutal repression that Mr. Hussein brought to Iraq.

Scores of Hussein supporters took the streets of Tikrit, the birthplace of the deposed president, to protest his trial.

Beneath a wan sky, with American helicopters swooping overhead, officials from the Iraqi special tribunal, most middle-aged men in dark suits, gathered near the convention center inside the fortified Green Zone to await transport to the courthouse. Accompanying them were human rights observers from international organizations. The Iraqi officials included Raad Juhi, the judge who has been leading the investigations into Mr. Hussein."