Iraqi officials said that the legal reckoning for Saddam Hussein...

Iraqi officials said that the legal reckoning for Saddam Hussein and his associates would begin in spring with televised trials for at least two of the top 12 government members in American military custody, and that prosecutors would demand the death penalty for those judged guilty of the worst crimes.   One of the first men to be tried would be a cousin of Mr. Hussein's, Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as Chemical Ali for his role in poison-gas attacks that killed thousands of Iraqi Kurds in the late 1980's, officials said.
Another would be Barzan al-Tikriti, a half brother of Mr. Hussein's, who served early in his rule as deputy head of the secret police. Officials said the most serious charge against him involved ordering the razing of a
Shiite village north of Baghdad, and the killing of scores of men there, after a failed assassination attempt against Mr. Hussein in 1982.