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The tribunal, with a 2004-05 budget of $75 million, will also prosecute any members of Saddam's regime who are charged, Qanbar said.
The court and prosecutors will determine charges against Saddam and his former officials, Qanbar said, adding that more judges will be hired for the tribunal. The judges and prosecutors will undergo training, including in international law, war crimes and crimes against humanity, he said. A committee of Iraq's Governing Council selected Chalabi as head of the court under a law passed earlier by the council and approved by top U.S. administrator L. Paul Bremer. The INC, headed by council member Ahmad Chalabi, has a seat on the committee. Since Saddam's regime fell, some 300,000 bodies were found buried in mass graves, victims of his regime's persecution of political enemies, Kurds and Shiite Muslims, and other groups, U.S. officials say. Saddam's military also used chemical weapons against troops and civilians during the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s and during a Kurdish uprising. In an interview with the New York Times earlier this month, Chalabi said that Saddam wouldn't be the first person tried, nor would he be allowed to act as his own lawyer. Chalabi said that he thought about 200 people would be tried, "a good portion of which can be dealt with through plea-bargaining."
Plea-bargain: you will sign the confession that you were ordered by Saddam to commit said atrocities…..or you will die….
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