The Iraqi government says former dictator Saddam Hussein and several of his closest aides will face trial next month, right after the country holds a national referendum on the new constitution.

Iraqi government spokesman Laith Kubba told reporters Sunday that the first trial session will take place on October 19, four days after Iraqis go to the polls to vote on the draft charter.

In addition to Saddam Hussein, Mr. Kubba says seven others will be tried by Iraq's special tribunal. The men include former vice president Taha Yassain Ramadan, former Ba'ath Party intelligence chief and Saddam's half-brother Barzan Ibrahim Hassan al-Tikriti, and Awad Ahmad al-Bandar, a former deputy chief in Saddam's cabinet.

Saddam and his aides face charges in connection with the 1982 massacre of 143 Shi'ite Muslims in Dujail, a rural community 80 kilometers north of Baghdad. The mass killings took place after a plot to assassinate Saddam was uncovered there.

The government of Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari says the special tribunal has enough evidence to ensure that Saddam and his men receive death sentences in the case. Saddam Hussein is also expected to face similar trials for other atrocities, including using chemical weapons against Kurds in the late 1980s and brutally suppressing a Shi'ite rebellion that followed the first Gulf War in 1991.