War crimes trials against the top officials in former Saddam Hussein's regime will start next week, interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi said Tuesday.
"I can now tell you clearly and precisely that, God willing, next week the trials of the symbols of the former regime will start, one by one so that justice can take its path in Iraq," Allawi told the interim National Council.
Additionally, Allawi disclosed the detention of a former top Saddam aide, Izz e-Din Mohammed Hassan al-Majid, the deposed president's cousin. Al-Majid, who fled Iraq in 1995 and was granted indefinite leave to remain in Britain in 2000, was arrested in Fallujah and will be tried as soon as possible, Allawi said, according to the AP.
Meanwhile, an aide to Iraq's most-wanted man, Jordanian activist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has been killed and two others captured, Allawi said. "I have been told that an individual by the name of Hassan Ibrahim Farhan Zyda from Zarqawi's group has been killed and that two of his deputies have been arrested," Allawi was quoted as saying by the AFP.
