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Below is background information on the trials and execution of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
Hussein was charged with premeditated murder, imprisonment and deprivation of physical movement, forced deportation and torture.
Seven other defendants were tried alongside Hussein: Barzan Hassan, Taha Yassin Ramadan, Awad al-Bandar, Abdullah Ruwaid, Ali Dayem Ali, Mohammed Azzawi Ali and Mizher Ruwaid.
July 8, 1982 – Residents of the Shiite Muslim city of Dujail, Iraq, fire on Hussein's motorcade. In retaliation, about 150 residents are executed.
March 19, 2003 – The Second Gulf War, called Operation Iraqi Freedom, begins.
December 14, 2003 – The US Department of Defense announces that Hussein was captured in a basement or “spider hole” on a farm in Tikrit on December 13, 2003.
June 30, 2004 – The Coalition hands legal control of Hussein and 11 other former senior Iraqi officials to the interim Iraqi government, but they remain in US physical custody for security reasons.
July 1, 2004 – Hussein makes his first court appearance at his arraignment and is accused of a variety of crimes, including the invasion of Kuwait and the gassing of the Kurds. He pleads innocent.
November 2004 – Hussein's family fires their main lawyer, Mohammed al-Rashdan, accusing him of using the trial to seek personal fame. Rashdan is replaced by Ziad al-Khasawneh.
July 7, 2005 – Hussein's top lawyer, Khasawneh, resigns because he says the US defense team is trying to take over the case.
July 17, 2005 – The Iraqi Special Court (IST) brings the first criminal charges against Hussein for the massacre of 148 people in Dujail in 1982. The remaining charges will be heard in separate trials.
August 23, 2005 – Hussein confirms that he has fired all of his previous lawyers and is now represented solely by Khalil Dulaimi.
September 6, 2005 – Iraqi President Jalal Talabani says Hussein has confessed, through video tapes, audio tapes and signed confessions, to giving the order to gas thousands of Kurds in the late 1980s.
September 8, 2005 – Chief prosecutor Dulaimi denies that Hussein has confessed to ordering executions and carrying out a campaign against the Kurds in which thousands of people are said to have died.
October 19, 2005 – Hussein's trial begins in Baghdad. He and seven other co-defendants appear before Chief Judge Rizgar Amin and plead not guilty to the torture and murder of Iraqi citizens in Dujail in 1982.
October 20, 2005 – Bandar's lawyer, Saadoun al-Janabi, is kidnapped and murdered one day after appearing in court for the opening of the trial.
November 8, 2005 – Adel al-Zubeidi, lawyer for one of Saddam's co-defendants, Ramadan, is killed and another lawyer is wounded during a drive-by shooting.
December 27, 2005 – Three more lawyers join the defense team: Saleh al-Armoti, Ibrahim al-Mulla and Tayseer al-Mudather.
January 15, 2006 – Chief Judge Amin resigns following complaints he was too lax with defendants at trial.
January 23, 2006 – Iraqi officials appoint Chief Judge Raouf Rasheed Abdel-Rahman to replace Amin.
January 29, 2006 – Judge Abdel-Rahman warns defendants that he will not tolerate political speech in the courtroom. Hassan, Hussein's half-brother, tests the judge by calling the court a “daughter of a bitch.” Hassan is then forcibly removed from the courtroom. In response, several members of the defense team leave the courtroom in protest.
February 2, 2006 – Hussein, his seven co-defendants and his defense team are boycotting the proceedings and plan to stay away from the trial until Judge Abdel-Rahman is removed from the court.
April 4, 2006 – Hussein and six other co-defendants are charged by the Iraqi High Criminal Court with genocide related to the Anfal campaign against Iraqi Kurds in the late 1980s. This will be a separate trial from the current one related to the Dujail massacre of 1982.
May 15, 2006 – Judge Abdel-Rahman formally charges Hussein and seven other defendants with crimes against humanity. Hussein refuses to plead guilty.
June 21, 2006 – Defense lawyer Khamis al-Ubaidi is kidnapped from his home by men dressed in Iraqi police uniforms and murdered. Ubaidi had been defending Hussein and his half-brother, Hassan. In response, the seven defendants in the trial said they will go on a hunger strike until their lawyers receive international protection.
July 27, 2006 – The court adjourns to deliberate on the verdict in Dujail's trial.
August 21, 2006 – A new trial against Hussein begins. He and six other defendants are being tried on genocide charges for their role in the 1980s Operation Anfal campaign, in which 100,000 Kurds were killed. If convicted, they could face the death penalty.
September 19, 2006 – Chief Judge Abdullah al-Amiri is removed from the case after telling Hussein he was not a dictator.
September 20, 2006 – The new chief judge, Mohammad Orabi Majeed Al-Khalefa, replaces Amiri.
November 5, 2006 – Hussein is sentenced to death by hanging for the 1982 Dujail massacre. Co-defendants Hassan and Bandar receive death sentences. Former Vice President Ramadan is sentenced to life in prison. Abdullah Ruwaid, Dayem Ali and Mizher Ruwaid receive 15-year sentences. Azzawi Ali is acquitted due to lack of evidence.
December 26, 2006 – An appeals chamber of the Iraqi High Court upholds Hussein's death sentence. Judge Aref Shaheen reads the court's decision and says it is the final word in the case. Therefore, Hussein's execution must take place before January 27, 2007, according to Iraqi law.
December 30, 2006 – Hussein is hanged a few minutes after 6:00 am Baghdad time.
