BAGHDAD, June 20 (UPI) -- Saddam Hussein could face the death penalty if found guilty by a war crimes tribunal, the BBC reported Sunday.
Salem Chalabi, director of Iraq's war crimes tribunal, said Iraqi law permitted execution for murderers, but a current coalition-imposed moratorium on capital punishment would have to be lifted.
Chalabi said hundreds of Iraqis had been flocking to submit evidence against their former rulers. However, he said the trials were unlikely to get under way for at least one year.
Chalabi faces the task of organizing the trials of former Iraqi leaders suspected of war crimes amid violent resistance to the new order. He said "intensive negotiations" were taking place with coalition authorities over the handling of Saddam Hussein.
Chalabi said Iraqi law allowed the imposition of a death sentence on those convicted of murder or rape.
