US-led forces will hand over Saddam Hussein and top officials of his former regime to the Iraqis before the handover of power, a top lawyer who is co-ordinating the toppled dictator's trial said on Tuesday.
"The coalition forces now have more than 100 detained former regime officials," Salem Chalabi told reporters in Kuwait. "They will be transferred to us before the transfer of power, and they include Saddam Hussein, Ali Hassan al-Majid and Tareq Aziz."
Washington has pledged to hand sovereignty to an unelected Iraqi government by June 30.
Chalabi, a US-educated lawyer who is director-general of administration for the special tribunal set up to prosecute Saddam, said the Iraqi trials will begin early next year but added that Saddam will not necessarily be the first in the dock.
He said those found guilty by the tribunal could face the death penalty.
"The punishments against those criminals will include executions," Chalabi told reporters upon arrival in Kuwait where he will collect evidence against Saddam, whose forces occupied the tiny Gulf Arab state in 1990.
The Iraqi dictator was toppled just over a year ago by a US-led invasion and was captured by US troops last December while hiding in a hole near his hometown of Tikrit.
International Red Cross officials visited Saddam at a secret prison in Iraq last month.
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