June 30 (Bloomberg) -- Ousted dictator Saddam Hussein and 11 of his officials were put under Iraqi legal jurisdiction today and will be arraigned in Baghdad tomorrow, said the director of Iraq's Special Tribunal for war crimes, Salem Chalabi.

Hussein, 67, and the former leaders of his Baath party regime were served with arrest and detention warrants yesterday, the tribunal said without revealing where they are being held. The prisoners include Ali Hassan al-Majid, the so-called Chemical Ali, accused of ordering gas attacks, and Tariq Aziz, former deputy prime minister and a regime spokesman.

The special tribunal was set up to prosecute Hussein and his aides for atrocities that include the use of chemical weapons that killed thousands of Kurds in 1988. Video footage of tomorrow's proceedings will be made available to the media, the U.S.-led coalition military said in an e-mailed statement.

``The Iraqis want to prove that they are very capable of having law and order and they want a semblance of a fair trial,'' said Rime Allaf, an analyst for the Middle East Program at the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London. ``The spectacle of Saddam on trial is probably going to be greeted with cheers.''

Iraq's interim government, led by Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, took over from the U.S.-led administration on Monday.

Hussein, captured by U.S. soldiers in December, isn't likely to face trial for many months, Allawi said yesterday. The former Iraqi leader is being held at a U.S. base at Baghdad International Airport, Agence France-Presse reported, citing unidentified humanitarian groups.

No Longer POWs

``I met with Saddam and the other 11 this morning at around nine o'clock,'' Chalabi said by telephone from Baghdad, adding he had met the 12 captives individually. ``We explained to them they are no longer prisoners of war.''

Hussein wore Arab dress when he was put under Iraqi jurisdiction, and no longer had the beard he sported when he was caught, Agence France-Presse cited Chalabi as telling ABC television. His hair was black, not gray, and he was ``visibly nervous,'' AFP said, citing Chalabi.

The head of Hussein's defense team today said the Iraqi authorities who took custody of the former leader lack legality, AFP reported.

``Iraqi justice is illegal and no different from the government which took its legality from the United States,'' the agency cited Jordanian lawyer Mohammed Rashdan, who heads Hussein's 20-member defense team, as saying.

Death Penalty

The new Iraqi government has approved reinstating the death penalty, President Sheikh Ghazi al-Yawar told the Asharq al-Awsat daily, according to AFP. The U.S. military will continue to guard Hussein and the other defendants.

``The interim government has requested that the multinational forces continue to maintain physical custody of the high-value detainees until the Iraqi corrections service is fully capable of providing for their safety and secure detention,'' State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said yesterday in Washington.

Youssef Ibrahim, managing director of the Dubai-based Strategic Energy Investment Group, said, ``Saddam still evokes a lot of emotion in the region, and it's vital that he's seen to get a fair and open trial in order to keep passions from overheating.''

Three Wars

Hussein, who led Iraq into three wars and drove the holder of the world's third-largest oil reserves into isolation under international sanctions during his 23-year presidency, first came to prominence in the 1950s when he was imprisoned for attempting to assassinate the then-prime minister. The murdering of political opponents was a defining characteristic of his reign.

A father of five, who had two of his sons-in-laws killed after they returned from exile in Jordan, Hussein was born in a village just outside Tikrit, north of Baghdad, in April 1937, close to the underground hovel where he was captured in December.

``It's near impossible to find any redeeming qualities in Saddam,'' said Anthony Harris, British ambassador to the United Arab Emirates from 1994-1998. ``There was a brief period in the 1970s when he was guiding Iraq to a bright future, which turned increasingly dark after he seized power at the end of the decade.''

The longest-serving Iraqi head of state in more than a century, Hussein established himself and his country as a regional leader and Western ally, only to lose that status in the 1990-1991 Gulf War.

The defeated Iraqi dictator, after suppressing an uprising, spent the next decade playing cat and mouse with the West hiding his weapons of mass destruction from the international community.

Hussein failed to see the change in Washington's mood after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the U.S., and his continued policy of frustrating United Nations arms inspectors was followed by the March 20, 2003, invasion that ended his reign.

To contact the reporter on this story: Alex Morales in London at amorales2@bloomberg.net. Sean Evers in Dubai at evers@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: June 30, 2004 12:05 EDT