Gunmen killed the brother of the chief prosecutor in Saddam Hussein’s Kurdish genocide trial today, even as the ex-president called in an open letter for insurgents to forgive their American enemies and for Iraqis to forgive each other and stop sectarian killings.

Saddam Hussein’s chief lawyer vowed to continue boycotting his Kurdish genocide trial today to protest the removal of the trial’s first chief judge and the court’s refusal to allow defence lawyers to examine thousands of documents.