Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said in a televised statement that Saddam Hussein signed a confession that he ordered the killings of more than 180,000 Kurds in the late 1980s.
There is some speculation that Hussein’s confession is not so straight-forward. Hussein’s lawyer, Khalil Dulaimi, said Thursday said that information is false and that Hussein signed no such confession.
Hussein’s lawyers said he might have only confessed because he presumed the actions to have been legal at the time in which, under his rule, there was a massacre of Shiites in 1982, according to the Associated Press.
The Iraqi government, according to a New Zealand report, is attempting to mentally prepare Iraqis for Hussein’s expected execution by making televised statements about the alleged confession. Some fear that this leak of information before the trial has begun could mean the chance for a fair and clean trial is slim, according to Dulaimi.
Hussein is currently being held by U.S. forces in Baghdad and is awaiting trial, set to take place Oct. 19.
