BAGHDAD - The seven co-defendants who are to share the dock Wednesday with Saddam Hussein on a charge of crimes against humanity include two members of the ousted president's inner circle and five lesser officials.

Barzan Ibrahim Hassan al-Tikriti is one of Saddam's three half-brothers and a former director of the feared Mukhabarat intelligence service. Taha Yassin Ramadan served as vice president from 1991.

Both men took part in the 1968 coup that brought Saddam's Baath party to power, and all seven are on trial for the 1982 killing of 143 Iraqi Shiites from the village of Dujail, north of Baghdad after a failed attempt on Saddam's life.

Following are pen portraits of the seven:

BARZAN IBRAHIM HASSAN AL-TIKRITI: Detained on April 16, 2003, he was number 52 on the wanted list issued by US commanders after their March 2003 invasion, and five of clubs in a pack of playing cards issued to troops.

Hot-tempered and secretive, Barzan had a series of rows with other members of Saddam's Tikriti clan, notably the president's elder son Uday, but family ties meant he was always welcomed back.

A 1988 fallout erupted over Barzan's opposition to the marriage of one of Saddam's daughters to a rival member of the Tikriti clan, Hussein Kamel Hassan, according to friends.

A 2003 dispute centered on Barzan's opposition to Saddam's younger son Qusay succeeding his father as president.

But despite the disagreements, Barzan remained one of the president's most trusted aides. He managed Saddam's personal fortune until 1995 and is also believed to have coordinated covert purchases in Europe for the regime's prized weapons programmes.

Barzan's position as Iraqi ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva from 1988 to 1998 gave him the perfect cover and he is also believed to have set up arrangements to circumvent the UN sanctions clamped on Iraq after Saddam's 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

He also coordinated Baghdad's intelligence network in Europe and managed Saddam's assets in European banks, according to opponents of the ousted regime.

He returned home in late 1998 after his wife died of cancer. A source close to Barzan said that during this period, he urged Saddam to abolish the ruling Revolution Command Council and proposed forming a government of technocrats he himself would head.

Born in 1951, Barzan was still in his teens when he took part in the coup that brought his half-brother to positions of power. A father of eight, he studied law and political science at Baghdad's Al-Mustansiriyah University.

US officials have characterized him as a member of "Saddam's Dirty Dozen", responsible for much of the torture and murder for which the regime became notorious.

The war crimes charge for which he is to stand trial dates from his time as head of the secret police from early 1982 to late 1983 at the height of the devastating eight-year Iran-Iraq war.

He is accused of participating in the 1982 massacre of 143 residents of the village of Dujail, northeast of Baghdad, as punishment for a failed assassination bid against Saddam.

Barzan may also stand trial later for other crimes of the period, including the 1983 disappearance of thousands of members of the Barzani clan of Massoud Barzani, the former rebel leader who now heads the autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq.

TAHA YASSIN RAMADAN. Detained on August 18, 2003 by Kurdish special forces, the former vice president was number 20 on the wanted list issued by US commanders and 10 of diamonds in the pack of playing cards.

A member of the powerful Revolution Command Council who had been one of Saddam's closest aides since his years of clandestine activity in the 1960s, Ramadan was known as one of the regime's "enforcers".

In 1970, just two years after the Baath party seized power, he presided over a revolutionary court that killed 44 officers accused of plotting to overthrow the regime.

When he served as industry minister in the 1970s, he reportedly had a single policy for the sector -- execute all shirkers.

During the 1980s Ramadan led a paramilitary force -- the Popular army -- which was disbanded when he became vice president.

A faithful follower of Saddam, he frequently represented the reclusive president on foreign trips.

He is reported to have lost 27 kilos (60 pounds) when Saddam accused his ministers of getting fat amid mounting popular anger at the alleged corruption of his regime.

Born to a peasant family near Iraq's main northern city of Mosul in 1938, Ramadan worked as a bank clerk after leaving school before becoming a full-time Baath party activist.

He worked his way up through the ranks while the party was operating clandestinely and became a member of its ruling Revolution Command Council after the 1968 coup.

Ramadan, who hailed the 1991 Gulf war as a victory for Iraq, has been accused by former opposition groups of hosting terror chief Osama bin Laden's deputy Ayman al-Zawahari in Baghdad in 1998. He survived a number of assassination attempts, including two in 1997 and one in 1999.

AWAD AHMAD AL-BANDER AL-SADUN is a former chief judge of the revolutionary court and deputy head of Saddam's office.

ABDULLAH KHADEM RUWEID, MEZHAR ABDULLAH RUWEID, ALI DAEH ALI and MOHAMMED AZZAM AL-ALI are former Baath party officials with responsibility for the Dujail area where the villagers were massacred.

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