Khazraji is thought to be involved in the chemical attack on Halabja in 1988 in which more than 5000 Kurds were killed

COPENHAGEN, November 20 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Danish authorities have charged a former head of the Iraqi armed forces, Nizar Al-Khazraji, with war crimes for chemical weapon attacks on Iraqi Kurds in the 1980s, police said Tuesday, November 19.

Khazraji, who has been named as a possible future Iraqi leader, appeared in court on Tuesday in his home town of Soroe, south of Copenhagen, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

After a five hour hearing, the magistrate ordered the 64-year-old former general be placed under house arrest and present himself on a regular basis at the local police station, Danish television reported late Tuesday.

The magistrate said there were “justifiable suspicions” that Khazraji is implicated in Iraqi war crimes.

The former army chief accepted the conditions and declared he would not attempt to leave the country but said he would appeal the court decision.

Danish authorities had requested Khazraji be detained, fearing he would try to leave the country.

The charge against Khazraji was thought to be for violating the Geneva Convention on the treatment of civilians in times of war.

In a phone interview with AFP from his home, Khazraji protested his innocence and said: “I have nothing to do with this business.”

“I am a victim of known parties in the Iraqi regime,” he told AFP. “Those implicated in this business (massacre of Kurds) are numerous parties within the Iraqi regime or parties linked to the regime,” he said, naming Ali Hassan al-Majid, a cousin of President Saddam Hussein and former defense minister and today a member of the all-powerful Revolution Command Council.

Khazraji denied the report that he had been put under house arrest after appearing before a Danish court on Tuesday to obtain travel papers. He has also been accused of having ordered the use of chemical weapons against Iranian soldiers during the Iraq-Iran war.

Khazraji, who was head of the armed forces when Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, fled to Jordan in 1995 and four years later applied for political asylum in Denmark, where he has since lived.

He is believed to be the highest ranking officer to have defected from the regime of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

Danish authorities in 1999 granted Khazraji the right to reside in Denmark with his wife and children, deeming him to be at risk of facing the death penalty if he were repatriated to Iraq.

Danish police have been investigating the former general for over a year, after a Kurdish refugee settled in Denmark recognized the former general in the street and reported him to authorities.

Prosecutor Birgitte Vestberg said that police had been forced to act after Khazraji applied for permission to travel to Saudi Arabia, which had accepted to take in the former general, the Danish news agency Ritzau reported.

Police charged Khazraji fearing that he would leave the country if they did not seek to have him held in custody.

Khazraji’s lawyer, Anders Josefson, said his client was “surprised by the arrest” and was called only “five minutes before being driven to the police station”.

He confirmed that Khazraji had requested permission to travel to Saudi Arabia and said his client had received a favorable response from immigration authorities.

Khazraji denied the accusations against him in court, saying he was unaware of the chemical attacks against Iraqi Kurdish civilians, in which thousands of people are thought to have been killed.

Khazraji is thought to be involved in the chemical attack on Halabja in 1988 in which more than 5000 innocent Kurds were killed. He was also in charge of the Iraqi army during the Anfal genocide operation in 1980s when more than 182 000 Kurds were killed by the Iraqi regime, reported Kurdishmedia.com.

He said last month that Iraqi secret police were behind the claims against him, in an attempt to have him barred from leaving Denmark thereby leaving him unable to organize the dissident Iraqi opposition.

Washington considers Khazraji to be a potential future Iraqi leader, in the event of Saddam being toppled from power, according to various media reports.

The Saudi-owned Al-Hayat daily reported earlier this year that Khazraji had been picked by the United States to run Iraq after the fall of Saddam.

The pan-Arab daily quoted Iraqi opposition sources in Damascus as saying that Khazraji was “the favored candidate” among 62 ex-officers earmarked by Washington as potential leaders.

Khazraji, who is said to have considerable support in the Iraqi army, said in September that he was willing to lead a military coup against Saddam, according to an interview with the BBC.

On June 11, the Police Chief of Ringsted, Denmark, in charge of investigating Khazraji’s crimes, told Western Denmark TV that he had no doubt that Khazraji had involved in the genocide against the Kurds in the light of new evidences came to light during investigations, reported Kurdishmedia.com.

He added that the evidences, so far collected, are substantial. They have necessitated the review of his asylum application and sending his file to Public Prosecutor, reported the site at the time.

According to the site, Vestberg, has been authorized by Denmark Internal Ministry to deal with claims against 16 people accused of War Crimes. Khazraji is the most seriously accused one of them.

The investigation includes videotape evidence against Khazraji. This videotape is about a military seminar by Yunis Muhammad Zerab, the commander of 5th division of Iraqi Army. He proves that Nizar Al-Khazraji; like Saddam Hussein and his cousin, Ali Majid ‘the Chemical Man’, had a strong hand in the strategic military movement against the Kurds, said Kurdishmedia.com.

Speaking to the BBC in September Khazraji said the failure of the U.S. to prepare for a post-Saddam Hussein Iraq is hindering any chances of support from the Iraqi people and army in any attempt to oust him.

If U.S. President George W. Bush’s problem with Iraq is the danger the current regime represents, the contenders for Saddam Hussein are corrupt, feckless, and downright dangerous, possibly making the “Butcher of Baghdad” look good, the Sunday Herald said Sunday, September 22.

Calling the list of possible heirs to the Iraqi leadership a “rogues gallery”, the Sunday Herald pointed out that “ever since the September 11 attacks ‘regime change’ has been the catchphrase coming out of Washington.”

However, the paper said, the political situation of a post-Saddam Iraq will be no less difficult than that of Afghanistan, and may in fact be even more so as there is no equivalent to the Northern Alliance in Iraq.

Eighty nine Kurdish and human rights groups as well as the Danish ministry of justice are calling for Khazraji to be tried for war crimes, the paper said, adding that Khazraji denies his involvement and claims that he is being smeared not just by Saddam, but also by other opposition groups who fear his popularity.

In the interview, Al-Khazraji “produced documentation from Kurdish groups absolving him from responsibility and also documents issued by Saddam showing that responsibility for dealing with the Kurds was given to Ali Hasan al-Majid - also known as Chemical Ali.”

This is the same man who David Mack, a senior official in the U.S. State Department who coordinates meetings of Iraqi opposition groups, believes has “the right ingredients” as a future leader in Iraq.

Al-Khazraji warned that the Iraqi people “may not support America if they fear they will lose their independence after the ousting of Saddam”, BBC Radio 4 reported.

He added that the idea that the U.S. will stay in Iraq to rebuild the country was a dangerous one. “It will be a very dark future for all.”

“Some say we will stay 20 or 30 years to control the country and control the oil. All this damages the will of the people to overthrow the regime” Khazarji claimed, saying that now “most of the people and the armed forces are afraid that the future will be even worse” and that “the Iraqis must be sure there will be a democratic regime after the overthrow of the Saddam and that Iraq will be an independent country,” the BBC reported.

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