Keeping Saddam Company

By Clayton Neuman

Saddam Hussein's seven co-defendants may be wondering how long he'll keep hogging the microphone. Like their deposed leader, each is accused of playing a role in the 1982 massacre of 148 Shi'ites after an assassination attempt against the President in the northern Iraqi town of Dujail. Prosecutors allege local Baath Party official Mohammed Azawi Ali helped arrest suspected assassins' relatives, regardless of age

Even before he became Vice President in 1991, Taha Yassin Ramadan was known as one of Saddam's top enforcers

Awad Hamed al-Bandar headed Saddam's Revolutionary Court when it issued death sentences for 148 Dujail residents in a quickie mass trial

Former President Saddam Hussein is charged with premeditated murder, forcible removal of a population, imprisonment and torture

As a senior Baath Party official, Abdullah Kazim Ruwayyid is believed responsible for the arrests of as many as 687 Shi'ites in Dujail

Seated here beside his father, Mizhar Abdullah Ruwayyid is charged with helping carry out Saddam's brutal retaliation orders

As chief of intelligence, Saddam's half-brother Barazan Ibrahim al-Tikriti is said to have commanded the Dujail reprisals

Another local Baath Party official, Ali Dayim Ali allegedly assisted in the Dujail roundup and interrogations that led to 46 deaths