The trial against former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein resumed briefly on Monday after a six-week break, and will resume again in one week, on December 5, to allow time to find replacements for two defense attorneys who were killed since the beginning of the trial, and another who fled Iraq after being wounded.
As a result of the events, special security measures have been implemented, including the relocation of some attorneys to neighboring Jordan or within Iraq’s heavily fortified "green zone." In addition, Iraq’s Ministry of Interior is currently paying the wages of defense attorneys’ bodyguards.
Monday's hearing began with Saddam complaining about the circumstances of his detention. He shouted at the judge that his pens had been taken, that he had been shackled and forced to walk up steps to the courtroom because the elevator was broken and that his guards were "foreign".
The judge said he would tell the police not to let this happen again. Saddam snapped: "You do not tell them. You order them. You are an Iraqi they are conquerors and occupiers."
Saddam and seven others are charged with their responsibility in the 1982 killings of nearly 150 people in the town of Dujail after an assassination attempt against the Iraqi leader. The former Iraqi leader and seven co-accused all deny charges of murder and torture.
A video-recording of former Iraqi intelligence officer Wadah Ismael al-Sheikhas served the first witness testimony in the trial; Sheikhas died of cancer soon after his investigation began.
Saddam’s defense lawyers argued that the trial should be adjourned on the basis that the court in which it is held is illegitimate as Iraq is not a sovereign state.
Defense attorney Ziad Al Najdawi told reporters, “Our presence at the trial does not mean we recognize it, because we believe Iraq lacks sovereignty,'', he added, "Our attendance is to guarantee that the procedures of the trial are just.''
Iraq’s special tribunal has rejected the claim, as well as other claims by Saddam’s defense.
Saddam's attorneys, including his main attorney, Khalil Al Dulaimi and a former U.S. attorney general, have argued that they had not been able to review materials in the case properly, partly due to security concerns.
As the trial was resumed, protesters called for the execution of Saddam in the town of Dujail, with banners reading, "Dujail's people ask for the execution of Saddam and his followers for the crimes they committed against Dujail's people and martyrs," reported the Washington Post. Some in the crowd held photographs of victims.
In separate protests, pro-Saddam demonstrators in Tikrit, the hometown of the former Iraqi leader took to the streets in his defense.
