A one-line statement from interim Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's
office Wednesday said the Iraqis have assumed legal control of former dictator Saddam Hussein and 11 other former high-ranking officials.

Saddam is scheduled to appear in court on Thursday for a formal readying of charges.

The legal transfer means Saddam and eleven other detainees are now criminal defendants whose treatment will be in accordance with Iraqi law.

Saddam will remain in a U.S.-controlled jail guarded by Americans
until the Iraqis are ready to take physical custody, which won’t happen right away.

When Saddam appears in an Iraqi court Wednesday, the appearance is expected to be filmed for public release.

“Saddam Hussein is now a criminal defendant in an open judicial system—something that those who suffered under his regime were long denied,” said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas.

“He will have a fair trial, and the Iraqi people will have the opportunity to bring him to justice for his crimes.”

The charges against the deposed dictator will be read before the Iraqi Special Tribunal, which is housed in a courthouse with a prominent clock tower inside Baghdad's sealed-off Green Zone.

A spokesman for Iraq's interim prime minister told the
Al-Jazeera network that Saddam will be granted 24 hours to respond
to the charges and get a lawyer.

The business of trying Saddam is just one of the challenges facing the country’s interim government, but former U.S. administrator Paul Bremer said Wednesday he’s confident the new rulers can get the job done.

The main priority now is establishing security so Iraq can hold elections in January, Bremer said on CBS’s “The Early Show.”

He said he thinks Iraq will become a pluralistic society, but not an "American-style democracy."

Bremer says it may be months before Saddam Hussein and other prisoners are brought to trial before an Iraqi tribunal.

Saddam "will get the kind of justice he denied his own people,” he said.