Saddam trial resumes with handwriting testimony

The Baghdad trial of Saddam Hussein resumed today, and an expanded group of handwriting experts confirmed signatures of the former Iraqi leader and his co-defendants on documents related to a crackdown on Shiites in the 1980s.

Saddam and his seven co-defendants were all present for the latest session of their six-month-old trial.

In the past two sessions, reports from a team of three handwriting experts were presented authenticating the defendants’ signatures on documents. Today, chief judge Raouf Abdel-Rahman read a report by an expanded five-member team that confirmed the earlier results.

The eight defendants are on trial for the deaths of 148 Shiites, the imprisonment of hundreds more and for torture and destruction of farmlands in a crackdown launched in the town of Dujail following a 1982 assassination attempt against Saddam.