Iraq's former Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz, along with seven members of the Saddam Hussein regime, will stand trial Tuesday over the deaths of 42 merchants executed in 1992, dpa reported.
The eight ex-officials are accused of ordering the execution of the merchants for increasing food prices at a time when Iraq was under international sanctions.
As Iraq started to feel the pinch of sanctions, prices in east Baghdad's Shurja wholesale market soared.
Saddam accused the merchants of manipulating prices. They were rounded up, given a speedy trial and then executed.
Among the officials who are standing trial are Watban Ibrahim al- Hassan, a half-brother of Saddam, and the former Central bank governor, Issam Hawish.
The trial will be conducted by Iraq's High Tribunal, which is in charge of trying members of the former regime.
The tribunal sentenced Saddam to death in 2006 after he was convicted of crimes against humanity over the killing of 148 Shiite Iraqis. "You want to know my values? You want to know about my patriotism? My patriotism is rooted in the fact that my story ... is not possible anywhere else on earth," Obama said in Chapel Hill.
"That's why I love this country, that's what our election's about."
Obama charged that he was being targeted on the issue of patriotism and Wright instead of real issues, because "my opponents realize they don't have a better argument."