Iraq Judge Who Presided over Saddam Hussein’s Trial Dies of COVID-19

Mohammed Oreibi al-Khalifa, chief judge presiding over the trial of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, gestures inside the fortified Green Zone in Baghdad September 25, 2006. (Reuters)
Mohammed Oreibi al-Khalifa, chief judge presiding over the trial of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, gestures inside the fortified Green Zone in Baghdad September 25, 2006. (Reuters)
TT
20

Iraq Judge Who Presided over Saddam Hussein’s Trial Dies of COVID-19

Mohammed Oreibi al-Khalifa, chief judge presiding over the trial of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, gestures inside the fortified Green Zone in Baghdad September 25, 2006. (Reuters)
Mohammed Oreibi al-Khalifa, chief judge presiding over the trial of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, gestures inside the fortified Green Zone in Baghdad September 25, 2006. (Reuters)

A retired Iraqi judge who presided over the trial of Iraq’s late dictator Saddam Hussein has died after battling COVID-19, the country’s top judicial body said Friday.

According to Iraq’s Supreme Judicial Council, Judge Mohammed Oreibi al-Khalifa, 52, passed away in a hospital in Baghdad where he was being treated for complications from the coronavirus.

Oreibi graduated from the Faculty of Law at Baghdad university in 1992 and was appointed a judge in 2000 by a presidential decree.

He shot to fame after he was named an investigative judge in the trial of Saddam and his regime in August 2004. He later took over as the lead judge in Saddam’s trial for genocide, which also included Saddam’s cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as Chemical Ali, and five other defendants on charges related to their roles in the bloody 1987-1988 crackdown against Kurdish rebels, known as the Anfal campaign.

The prosecution alleged that around 180,000 people died, many of them civilians killed by poison gas. Saddam was subsequently convicted and sentenced to death; he was executed on Dec. 30, 2006.

Oreibi tolerated very few disruptions from Saddam and his co-defendants during the trial — even throwing the deposed Iraqi leader out of the courtroom several times amid fiery exchanges between them.

In one session, after a shouting match between them, he ordered Saddam held in solitary confinement for several days.

The statement from the judicial council lauded Oreibi for his what it said was courage in handling the trial of Saddam and the former regime.



Human Rights Watch Says Houthi Attacks on Red Sea Vessels Amount to War Crimes 

Houthi supporters hold up weapons during a protest against the US and Israel, in Sanaa, Yemen, 18 July 2025. (EPA)
Houthi supporters hold up weapons during a protest against the US and Israel, in Sanaa, Yemen, 18 July 2025. (EPA)
TT
20

Human Rights Watch Says Houthi Attacks on Red Sea Vessels Amount to War Crimes 

Houthi supporters hold up weapons during a protest against the US and Israel, in Sanaa, Yemen, 18 July 2025. (EPA)
Houthi supporters hold up weapons during a protest against the US and Israel, in Sanaa, Yemen, 18 July 2025. (EPA)

The Iranian-backed Houthi militias in Yemen attacked two ships, the Magic Seas and the Eternity C, on July 6 and 9, killing some of their crew and detaining others, Human Rights Watch said in a statement on Wednesday.

The militants have been launching missile and drone attacks against commercial and military ships in the region in what the group’s leadership has described as an effort to end Israel’s offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

HRW, however, said the Houthis’ attacks on the two vessels “violates the laws of war applicable to the armed conflict between the Houthis and Israel.”

“The Houthis have sought to justify unlawful attacks by pointing to Israeli violations against Palestinians,” said Niku Jafarnia, HRW’s Yemen and Bahrain researcher.

Jafarnia called for the Houthis to end all attacks on ships that don’t take part in the Israeli-Hamas war and immediately release detained crew members.