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Saddam's trial begins

     Baghdad: The trial of deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein has begun in Baghdad. Reports from the Iraqi capital said that he defiantly pleaded not guilty to the charge that he had ordered the killing of 143 people in the Shia town of Dujail in 1982 after a botched assassination attempt. Saddam and the other co-accused in the case even refused to reveal their names and questioned the authority of the court to try them. However, the bench read out the charges against the eight accused, and if proved guilty, they will face the death penalty. Meanwhile, Saddam's lawyer has said that he would ask for a three-month adjournment at his client's trial for the 1982 massacre, and challenge the court's competence to hear the case.

     The trial is being presided over by five judges, whose identities have been kept secret. And it is being held in a specially built courtroom in the heavily protected Green Zone of the city. The court will hear evidence that he rounded up the wives and children of the men whose killing he ordered and kept them in a desert camp for years. Emotions are running high among relatives of those killed over two decades ago. By focusing on the relatively limited Dujail case, prosecutors have said they believe they can show Saddam's personal responsibility more easily than in the bigger crimes. Other accusations against Saddam, not yet formalised into charges, include genocide and crimes against humanity committed during Iraq's eight-year war with Iran and his 1990 invasion of Kuwait.