Saddam Hussein

Baghdad, Feb. 9 (Reuters): Saddam Hussein and his top lieutenants will take a step closer to trial in the coming weeks but don?t expect an O.J. Simpson-style courtroom drama, a western legal expert involved in the process said today.

Saddam and 11 of his most senior aides face charges that range from crimes against humanity to genocide after decades of brutal rule ended in April 2003 by the US-led invasion.

The western expert, briefing reporters on the condition of anonymity, said the next hurdle in the process was when investigating judges refer charges against some of the 12 to an Iraqi trial court. He said that this would happen ?in weeks?.

?Chemical Ali?, Saddam?s feared cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid, and former defence minister Sultan Hashem are expected to be two of the first accused to go to trial.

Once lodged, proceedings could move fast, depending on how many pre-trial challenges to the legitimacy of the process are made by defence lawyers.

Many in Iraq want speedy justice and death for the leaders of a government that murdered and tortured hundreds of thousands.

Iraq has the death penalty, traditionally delivered by either hanging or firing squad. But there will be no show trial in the western sense, although the proceedings will be televised and open to the public.

?It is not going to be a system where you have Johnnie Cochran cross-examining somebody in the .J. case for these periods of drama,? he said, referring to the defence lawyer who helped US celebrity .J. Simpson defeat murder charges in 1995.

This type of trial by jury does not exist in Iraq, or indeed in many other places outside the US and Britain.

Instead, Iraq?s civil law system, which mirrors the civil law proceedings of European countries such as France and Italy, will plot a much more methodical and systematic path.