Baghdad: The trial of Saddam Hussain and his former aides for crimes against humanity was adjourned on Wednesday to November 28. Kurdish judge Rizkar Mohammed Amin made the decision following a request from Saddam’s Iraqi lawyer for a three-month delay.
Saddam's lawyer, who asked the court for a list of witnesses' names, had earlier sought the delay to give their team more time to prepare.
Hussain’s trial got off to a farcical start with the deposed dictator refusing to verify his identity “to an illegal court.” Although the grey-bearded Saddam, who was carrying a copy of the Quran, would not give his name he did describe himself as the "president of Iraq."
The presiding judge Amin, said “Mr Saddam, we are here to ascertain your identity, your age…and then the floor will be open to you.”
“You know me.” Saddam said, causing the judge to smile nervously, “You are an Iraqi and you know me and you know very well that I don’t get tired.
“I have no hatred toward any of you. In respect to the glorious Iraqi people I would like to say that I refuse to answer these questions because this court is illegal and I reserve my constitutional right not to proceed,” Saddam said. “My identity? I am an Arab.”
"I preserve my constitutional rights as the president of Iraq," Saddam, who faces death by hanging if found guilty, said.
"I do not recognise the body that has authorised you and I don't recognise this aggression. What is based on injustice is unjust ... I do not respond to this so-called court, with all due respect."
Most of Saddam's seven co-defendants were wearing traditional Arab robes and they complained that court security would not allow them to wear their headdresses. The judge ordered court officials to give the headdresses back.
Former vice president Taha Yassin Ramadan also refused to identify himself to the judge saying "I repeat what President Saddam Hussein has said."
The trial was aired with around a 30-minute delay on state-run Iraqi television and on satellite stations across Iraq and the Arab world.
Saddam and seven former members of his regime face charges of murder, torture, forced expulsion and illegal imprisonment for a 1982 massacre of nearly 150 Shiites in the town of Dujail.
