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Baghdad: The trial of ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussain resumed on Wednesday for a few minutes and then was adjourned until April 17. No defendants were present due to procedural reasons. The judge Raouf Abdul Rahman said the purpose of the session was to ask investigative criminal experts to verify the signatures of Saddam and most of his co-accused, who claimed that prosecution documents were forged. Saddam Hussain and his half brother Barzan Al Tikriti refused to provide the court with handwriting samples for experts to authenticate signatures said to be theirs on key documents in their trial, the chief judge said. Handwriting experts had been due to testify on Tuesday in the trial, but they did not show up at court, forcing chief judge to adjourn until Monday after a session that lasted only about five minutes.
Prosecutors told the judge that the analysts had not yet finished their work. Saddam and seven co-accused are on trial for the killing of 148 Shiite Muslim men and teenagers after an assassination attempt on him in the town of Dujail in 1982. The former president could face new charges of genocide against Iraq's Kurds as early as next month.
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