Iraq's trial of Saddam Hussein for genocide on Monday resumed with the prosecution submitting documentary evidence it said linked defendants to the use of chemical weapons against the Kurds in 1988.
According to AFP, prosecutors produced what they said was a memo from Saddam's office to Iraqi military intelligence ordering a strike with "special ammunition and possibly implemented by means of the air force, air aviation and artillery."
"The president ordered that your directorate be merged with the experts' directorate to carry out a pre-emptive strike against the bases of Khomeini guards," the memo read Monday.
The general prosecutor also read from further documents in which prosecutors had highlighted the words "special ammunition" with yellow marker pens.
Meanwhile, Iraq's former electricity minister, a dual U.S.-Iraqi citizen, has escaped from police custody, an Iraqi official said Monday. According to the AP, Ayham al-Samaraie escaped Sunday with help from members of a security company he had hired to protect him before his arrest, said Faris Kareem, deputy head of Iraq's Public Integrity Commission.
Al-Samaraie was convicted in October of corruption and sentenced to two years in prison.
