![Saddam trial expected to trigger upsurge in Iraq violence](https://www.jurist.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/jurist-white-text.png)
[JURIST] Sunday's announcement [JURIST report] that the Iraqi Special Tribunal [official website; JURIST news archive] has charged former dictator Saddam Hussein in connection with the 1982 killing of some 150 Shiites in the village of Dujail [NPR report] and statements by chief investigating judge Raed Jouhi that a date for the trial would be set within days have prompted concerns that insurgent violence will only increase as the trial gets underway. Though US officials continue to hope that Hussein's trial and possible execution will help bring a sense of finality to a dictatorship that included torture and mass killings, many Iraqis living in fear of suicide attacks by Sunni fighters and former members of Saddam's regime believe more instability is the more likely result. Reuters has more.