Ali Hassan Al Majid, a cousin of Saddam Hussein nicknamed "Chemical Ali" for the gassing of the Kurds, will be the first member of Iraq's ousted leadership to go on trial, a minister announced on Wednesday.
"The trials will take place from next week until mid-January, and the first to be tried will be Chemical Ali," said defense minister Hazem Shaalan, quoted by his spokesman.
Prime Minister Ayad Allawi said on Tuesday that the "symbols" of Saddam's regime would go on trial from next week. They will "appear in succession to ensure that justice is done in Iraq", he said.
Saddam, seized by US forces along with 11 of his top Baathist lieutenants, is being held at Camp Cropper, a US base near Baghdad airport. All 12 appeared in court in July to hear preliminary charges.
Sixty-year-old Majid, captured on August 21 last year, is accused of having ordered the 1988 gassing of the Kurds in the town of Halabja that killed some 5,000 people, 75 percent of them women and children.
He also played a key role in the 1990 invasion of Kuwait and stands accused of the violent repression of a Shia Muslim uprising after Iraq's ouster from the emirate in the 1991 Gulf War.
Hailing like Saddam from Tikrit, north of the capital, Majid was considered the "hatchet man" of the toppled president whose services were regularly called upon to break the back of any challenge to the regime.
Majid was initially thought to have been killed by a British airstrike on his villa in the southern city of Basra in April 2003. He was listed as number five on a US list of 55 most-wanted Iraqi officials.