IRAQ. IRAN FINALISES GENOCIDE, OTHER CHARGES AGAINST SADDAM

Iran's judiciary said it had finalised charges of genocide and using chemical weapons it hoped would be leveled against former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
"The indictment against Saddam has been prepared and has been sent for approval by the head of judiciary," Iran's deputy attorney general Ghorban-Ali Dorri Najafabadi said.
He said the indictment included evidence of "crimes against humanity, genocide, violations of international law and the use of prohibited weapons" culled from the archives of Iran's intelligence ministry, army and Revolutionary Guards.
Iran and Iraq fought a devastating war from 1980-1988, after Saddam attempted to profit from its neighbour's revolutionary turmoil by making a land grab in the oil-rich southwest of Iran. The conflict cost the lives of up to a million people, most of them Iranians, and involved the use of nerve gas and other chemical weapons by Iraqi troops.
But Iran had complained about plans for the former president's trial, arguing the charges so far leveled against him were insufficient.
"Saddam's crimes are so great that I doubt this tribunal will be able to deal with them," Najafabadi said, adding Iran wanted to submit its indictment to a "competent international court that the Islamic Republic approves of".
Saddam was due to go on trial on October 19 over the massacre of Shiite villagers more than two decades ago, and an Iraqi government spokesman had said that he could be executed for that crime without facing further charges.