Prosecutors in the Baghdad trial of Saddam Hussein today played an audiotape said to be a phone call between the former Iraqi leader and one of his co-defendants discussing the destruction of farmlands during a crackdown against Shiites in the 1980s.

Three of Saddam Hussein’s co-defendants testified for the first time today, denying any role in the deaths and arrests of Shiites in the 1980s, as the trial of the former Iraqi leader entered a new phase.