Saddam Hussein's chief lawyer walked out of the former leader's trial today after a series of defence requests were rejected. The chief judge immediately appointed other attorneys to defend the deposed president.
Chief defence attorney Khalil al-Dulaimi had just ended a month-long boycott of the trial, in which Saddam and six other defendants are charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity for a 1987-88 offensive against Iraq's Kurdish population.
The charges against Saddam and one other defendant include genocide.
When the session began, al-Dulaimi filed 12 requests, including that the court should allow foreign lawyers to attend the trial without prior court permission. Al-Dulaimi said yesterday that he was ending his boycott in order to make the requests.
Al-Dulaimi has said that if Saddam is condemned to death in a separate trial, where he is charged with killing nearly 150 people from the town of Dujail, it could provoke civil war in Iraq and unrest throughout the Middle East.
The verdict in the Dujail trial is expected at the end of the week. Saddam and seven others are charged with crimes against humanity for the killing of 148 Muslim Shias after an attempt to assassinate him in Dujail in 1982.
AP