Dubai: A retired Iraqi judge who headed the trial of Iraq’s former president Saddam Hussein has died after battling COVID-19, local media reported.
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 after getting infected with COVID-19.
Oreibi graduated from the Faculty of Law at Baghdad university in 1992 and was appointed a judge in 2000 by a presidential decree.
He became well known after being 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 1987-1988 crackdown against Kurdish rebels, known as the Anfal campaign.
-With inputs from agencies
