The trial of Saddam Hussein and seven aides on charges of crimes against humanity resumed on Wednesday with all the defence lawyers attending the session, except Saddam’s lead lawyer Khalil al-Dulaimi.
All the eight defendants came to the court and sat down quietly, an Agence France-Presse correspondent reported.
Wednesday’s hearing came amid fears of fresh outbreak of communal bloodshed in Iraq after a roadside bomb killed three in Baghdad, a day after a spate of bombings left 64 dead.
Iraqi prosecutors on Tuesday submitted to the court trying Hussein what they said was an execution order signed by the former Iraqi dictator, as his lawyers stormed out of the tribunal.
Documents were presented linking Saddam to the trial and execution of 148 villagers from Dujail, north of Baghdad, in some of the most significant documentary evidence to have been presented by the prosecution so far.
Hussein’s lead lawyers, Khalil al-Dulaimi and Khamis Ubaydi, had walked out of the courtroom at the start of the hearing after the judge rejected their pleas for proceedings to be postponed and for the judge and chief prosecutor to be dismissed for alleged bias against the accused.
Ubaydi however was seen in the court on Wednesday.
On Tuesday after their walkout they were immediately replaced by court-appointed lawyers who represented Hussein during an earlier defence counsel walkout.
Tuesday’s hearing, which was quieter than previous sessions that threatened to descend into chaos owing to noisy interventions by the defendants, lasted two hours before being adjourned.
One of the documents, dated June 16, 1984 and allegedly signed by Hussein, confirmed the death sentences passed by a tribunal two days earlier. The disappearence of the men from Dujail followed a 1982 assassination attempt on Hussein in the village.
Prosecutors also submitted documentary evidence to show Hussein’s office had ordered that the sentences be carried out, along with a letter, dated March 23, 1985, confirming the executions had taken place and a doctor was on duty to confirm the deaths.
The prosecutors said the villagers had been sentenced after a show trial in which they did not even appear.
Hussein and seven former cohorts, face death by hanging if they are convicted by the court.
The resumption of the trial came against a background of deadly civil unrest in Iraq, which included the bombing of the tomb of Saddam’s father in his hometown of Tikrit.
The trial, which opened in October, resumed after a stormy hearing on February 14, when a defiant Hussein announced he was on hunger strike amid chaotic scenes.
Dulaimi said on Monday that the deposed president had ended his fast to protest court proceedings.
The trial has frequently run into trouble, with stormy sessions featuring long outbursts or walkouts by the defendants and their counsel as well as the resignation of the previous chief judge and the killing of two defence lawyers.
The trial is currently in the second phase of depositions by witnesses testifying over events during the Dujail massacre.
Hussein’s lawyers have continued to demand the sacking of chief judge Abdel Rahman, charging he was biased and prejudiced.
Ramsey Clark, the former US attorney general who is helping to defend Hussein, has submitted a motion recently claiming the judge “is not impartial and has a manifested bias against the defendant”.
He has “repeatedly violated standards of fair trial, human rights and basic due process in the courtroom”, according to Clark.
The defence claims Abdel Rahman is biased because he is a native of the Kurdish village of Halabja, the target of a 1988 chemical attack in which about 5 000 people, including women and children, were killed.
Since the stern Abdel Rahman took over as the chief judge of the trial, Hussein has often been locked in heated verbal exchanges with him, often plunging the sessions into chaos.
During the February 14 session as the judge pounded his gavel to restore order, Hussein told him to “take that hammer and knock yourself on the head”.
At a January 27 hearing, Abdel Rahman ejected Hussein’s half-brother and co-defendant Barzan al-Tikriti for disruptive behavior, an action that led to a walkout by the entire defence team.
The defendants then boycotted the next session, and although they later returned to the court — amid claims they were forced to do so — their defence counsel stayed away. – AFP