The trial of Saddam Hussein resumed in the absence of the ousted leader, who the day before dismissed evidence linking him to the killings of Shiite villagers in the 1980s.
Thursday's hearing started with a single defendant in the dock, Awad Ahmad al-Bander, the former chief judge of the revolutionary court and deputy head of Saddam's office.
Bander is one of Saddam's seven co-defendants accused over the killing of the residents from the village of Dujail after an attempt to kill Saddam in 1982.
According to AFP, Bandar said the suspects over the Dujail assassination bid against Saddam were fairly tried, adding: "Even if their trial took place against the backdrop of the Iran war it was respectfully conducted and I do not think we violated any legal rules." "The accused had all the the rights and were defended by their lawyers," he told chief judge Rauf Abdel Rahman.
On Wednesday, chief prosecutor Jaafar al-Mussawi presented documents linking Saddam to the Dujail massacre. "These documents are forged," Saddam told the judge.
During the Wednesday's proceedings the judge expelled defense lawyer Bouchra Khalil after she started showing pictures of Iraqi prisoners being tortured by American forces at the Abu Ghraib jail.
