Baghdad, Iraq ? Saddam Hussein, the leader of a brutal regime for 35 years, will be transferred to Iraqi legal custody today and publicly arraigned Thursday in connection with crimes against the Iraqi people, Iyad Allawi said at his first news conference as prime minister.

It will be Iraqis’ first glimpse of Saddam since he was captured last December and Americans displayed photographs of the former leader bearded, long-haired and looking disoriented. Eleven former top officials of the Baathist regime also are to be arraigned.

Saddam is expected to be arraigned on charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, as well as other misdeeds, according to lawyers involved in the case. He is likely to be tried for the use of chemical weapons in the 1988 attack on the Kurdish town of Halabja; the Anfal campaign of 1988 against the Kurds in the north; crimes related to Iraq’s 1980-88 war with Iran and to the suppression of a Shiite uprising in southern Iraq in 1991, among others.

The new government’s request that the U.S.-led coalition transfer Saddam to Iraqi custody was Allawi’s first official act as head of the government and seemed designed to underscore to Iraqis that the new government, not the old regime, was in control. The move also bolstered the new government’s standing when compared with the American-led occupation, which had classified Saddam as a prisoner of war rather than as a defendant in a criminal proceeding.

“We would like to show the world that the new Iraq government means business and wants to do business and wants to stabilize Iraq,” Allawi said.

The arraignment will be in a courtroom before an Iraqi investigating judge who will present the initial charges against Saddam and inform him of his rights. Saddam is permitted to hire lawyers from outside Iraq, and there are reports that discussions are under way with at least one foreign defense team, from France.

Among those slated for arraignment with Saddam are former Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz and Ali Hassan al Majeed, also known as Chemical Ali, said Salem Chalabi, the executive director of the Iraqi Special Tribunal created to handle the trials. Majeed is alleged to have been one of the people responsible for the gassing of the Kurds at Halapja in Northern Iraq in 1988.

The arraignment will be televised and is expected to show Saddam and others in chains as they walk into the courtroom to hear the charges — a dramatic and graphic display of how far from power they have fallen. Once the arraignment is complete, their status will be changed from prisoners of war to criminal detainees under Iraqi law. In general, prisoners of war have fewer rights and aren’t charged with a crime.

The detainees will remain in American custody until Iraqis have a secure prison facility, Allawi said.

Although the death penalty was suspended by L. Paul Bremer III, the civilian administrator for Iraq under the U.S.-led coalition, its reinstatement is under consideration, Allawi said.

Under the legal system used by Iraq, an investigating judge first determines that there is enough evidence to go ahead with a case; then the suspect is arraigned and the investigation continues until there is enough evidence to prepare an indictment.

Chalabi said he expected that Saddam’s indictment would not be completed until the fall and his trial would come next winter at the earliest.

“Once the indictment is issued, then a timetable kicks in,” Chalabi said.

Iraqis greeted Allawi’s announcement with enthusiasm.

“A tyrant in the dock — that is unbelievable,” said Sheerwan Hassan, 42, a Kurd. “I and my family are eagerly awaiting the sight of that person being prosecuted. That is the first step toward democracy in Iraq.”

French lawyer Emmanuel Ludot, one member of a 20-person team appointed by Saddam’s wife to represent him, said the former president would refuse to acknowledge any court or any judge. “It will be a court of vengeance, a settling of scores,” Ludot told France Info radio.