Saddam Hussein’s lawyers today said the Iraqi court that is trying the deposed leader for war crimes was unlikely to provide him a fair trial.

The resumption of Saddam Hussein’s mass murder trial was delayed for several hours today, apparently as the sides wrangled over a last-minute shake-up in the court in which a new chief judge was appointed.

Saddam Hussein’s trial was to resume today, a day after court officials named a new chief judge and ousted another jurist off the five-member panel trying the former Iraqi leader.

Saddam Hussein was expected to show up when his Baghdad trial reconvenes today, two weeks after he boycotted the last session and vowed not to appear before an “unjust” court.

Three men threatened Saddam Hussein’s chief lawyer as he boarded a plane from Baghdad to Jordan today, and they were removed from the flight, the Iraqi lawyer and his colleague, ex-US Attorney General Ramsey Clark, said.

Three men threatened Saddam Hussein’s chief lawyer as he boarded a plane from Baghdad to Jordan today, and they were removed from the flight, said the Iraqi lawyer and his colleague, ex-US. Attorney General Ramsey Clark.

SADDAM Hussein warned the judge in his trial yesterday that he could be held accountable for his actions during the proceedings.

Saddam Hussein warned the judge in his trial today that he could be held accountable for his actions during the proceedings.

Saddam Hussein’s defence team walked out of the court in Baghdad today after the chief trial judge refused to allow former Attorney General Ramsey Clark to challenge the tribunal’s legitimacy in an address to the session.

The trial of Saddam Hussein resumes today – after Iraqi authorities said they had foiled an insurgent plot to fire rockets at the courtroom.

One of the five judges in the Saddam Hussein trial has stepped down after learning that one of the defendants may have been involved in the execution of his brother, a court official said today.

Mounting political pressure to speed up the trial of Saddam Hussein threatens the independence of the Iraqi special court trying the case, international observers have warned.

Former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark said today he met with deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein yesterday and found him in “very good spirits”.

A combative Saddam Hussein lashed out today over his treatment by US guards and demanded that the chief judge stand up to American “occupiers and invaders” as his trial for crimes against humanity resumed in a heavily guarded Baghdad court.

Saddam Hussein and others assembled today in a special Green Zone courtroom for resumption of his trial as the sound of mortar fire echoed through the centre of the Iraqi capital.

Iraqi police arrested eight Sunni Arabs for allegedly plotting to kill the judge who prepared the indictment of Saddam Hussein, the day before the ousted leader’s trial for crimes against humanity resumes.

The courtroom will be the same but uncertainty surrounds nearly everything else as the trial of Saddam Hussein resumes today after a five-week recess.

THE first prosecution witnesses are expected to testify today as the trial of Saddam Hussein resumes.

Four aid workers, including two Canadians, have been kidnapped in Iraq, a Canadian official said tonight, while Iraqi police have arrested eight Sunni Arabs for allegedly plotting to assassinate the investigating judge in the case against Saddam Hussein.

A top member of Saddam Hussein’s defence team slammed the deposed Iraqi leader’s upcoming trial today, saying it was a gimmick by the new Iraqi government for political gain following a referendum on a controversial draft constitution.

The family of the former Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein, has said it has dissolved his Jordan-based legal team, cancelling the power of attorney it had given to international lawyers in a move seen as reorganising Saddam’s legal counsel ahead of his upcoming trial.

Saddam Hussein’s family says it has dissolved the Jordan-based legal team cancelling the power of attorney it had given to international lawyers in a move seen as reorganising the former Iraqi dictator’s legal counsel ahead of his upcoming trial.

Imprisoned former Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz has told his son that he faces the death sentence after being accused of responsibility for mass killings in 1979 and 1991.

A US soldier charged with deserting his unit in Iraq walked away from the war partly to avoid orders to abuse Iraqi prisoners, a court-martial was told.

Saddam Hussein may be having second thoughts about his initial defiance of UN orders to destroy Iraq’s Al Samoud 2 missiles.

IRAQ has withheld a decision on a United Nations order to start destroying its Al Samoud 2 missile programme by the end of the week, but said yesterday that it is “serious about solving this”.

An officer in the US army has defended the treatment of suspected al-Qaida members being held at Camp X-Ray.

A US judge has agreed to consider a petition challenging the detention of al-Qaida suspects at a US military base in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

Slobodan Milosevic says he’s not suicidal, is in good health and high spirits, and is convinced he did the right thing for Yugoslavia, said a Canadian lawyer who saw the former Yugoslav President in jail yesterday.

The prison meeting in The Hague between Slobodan Milosevic and his lawyers has been delayed because Milosevic’s luggage, which his legal team had brought from Belgrade, was lost at Amsterdam airport, one of his lawyers said.