Baghdad, Iraq ? Appearing haggard and feeble, a former Iraqi general known as Chemical Ali appeared before a tribunal Saturday at the start of judicial proceedings against former President Saddam Hussein and 11 deputies in U.S. custody.

Ali Hassan Majeed was one of two former officials brought before the hearing in a sparsely decorated room, bare but for a chair and a desk with a green-wrapped Koran on it. He was joined by Sultan Hashem Ahmed, the former defense minister. Ahmed’s testimony is expected to help build the case against Majeed, Saddam’s first cousin and the man accused of instigating some of the former government’s bloodiest episodes over two decades.

Closed hearing

The hearing was closed to the public. In brief comments, the tribunal’s chief judge, Raed Jouhi, said that the proceedings would cover the Baath Party’s 35-year reign in Iraq. Despite criticism by some human rights groups that the trials are being rushed, Jouhi promised a methodical investigation and due process for the defendants.

“Speed in the legal process is the plague of the judicial system,” he said.

The actual trials will not begin until next year in a process likely to be dramatic and lengthy, rekindling memories of Saddam’s long and brutal rule. Jouhi stressed that the hearing on Saturday was part of a grand-jury-like investigation of the men, who are expected to eventually face charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. There was no word on when Saddam would come before the tribunal for a hearing.

“What happened today was an ordinary investigative hearing for the accused,” Jouhi told reporters afterward. “It could be repeated many times.”

Majeed and Ahmed

In video without sound that was released by the tribunal, Majeed, using a cane, was shown being escorted into the hearing room by Iraqi policemen. Wearing a dark suit with a white shirt and no tie, Majeed was helped to a chair and his handcuffs were removed. His hair was noticeably grayer than when he last appeared in court in July.

Ahmed, the defense minister during the U.S. invasion in 2003, was shown standing in the room. At times, he looked down at the floor and seemed to be smiling wryly.

Ahmed surrendered to U.S. forces in September 2003. Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih has said that Ahmed was expected to testify against Majeed, who was taken into U.S. custody in August 2003. Majeed’s career mirrored the rise and fall of the man he served so loyally for 24 years.

A former motorcycle messenger in the Iraqi military, Majeed was said to have taken part in the arrests and executions of 66 people accused of plotting a coup just days after Saddam’s 1979 inauguration. At times interior and defense minister, he was appointed governor of Kuwait soon after Iraq invaded the neighboring emirate in 1990. After the 1991 Persian Gulf War, he was instrumental in the brutal repression of the Shiite Muslim uprising, and he personally reoccupied Basra, the country’s second-largest city.

Famous video footage shows a chain-smoking Majeed, paunch stretching his uniform, kicking prisoners on the ground and, as was his habit, hurling insults.

Crushing the Kurds

His role in crushing Kurdish resistance during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war earned him his greatest notoriety, and Jouhi said the episode was the focus of the investigation.

In March 1987, Saddam appointed Majeed, by then a general, head of his forces in northern Iraq. Majeed soon used chemical weapons in two Kurdish cities, which was how he came by his nickname. In the ensuing months, he launched a scorched-earth campaign known as Anfal. In all, 100,000 Kurds — perhaps many more — were killed. Iraqi forces destroyed 2,000 villages, with mass transfers of residents, to create a cordon sanitaire.

In the most notorious episode, in March 1988, his forces used mustard gas and nerve agents against Halabja, a town near the Iranian border, killing an estimated 5,000 people. U.S. forces, then tacitly backing Iraq in the war, initially blamed Iran, although the Bush administration later used the episode as part of its justification for the invasion.