The trial of Saddam Hussein and seven co-accused for crimes against humanity was adjourned today until October 16th when a verdict, that can carry the death penalty, is expected to be delivered.
Saddam Hussein
During today's trial former Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan turned down the services of five court-appointed lawyers after his own legal team boycotted the proceedings, and opted to defend himself.
"This case is fabricated against me since the beginning. I am innocent and I realise that the verdict was already prepared against me," he told chief judge Raouf Abdel Rahman.
"I reject the court-appointed lawyers. I will defend myself. They know nothing about me," said Ramadan, dressed in traditional grey flowing robes and a red chequered headdress.
Saddam and the seven others are charged with the killing of 148 Shia after an attempt on his life in Dujail in 1982. He faces a second trial, due to start in a month, on charges of genocide against the country's ethnic Kurds.
US officials close to the court said they expected the Dujail trial to be adjourned later on Thursday, following arguments on behalf of Awad Hamed al-Bandar, chief of Saddam 's Revolutionary Court. Verdicts will be delivered in October.
The maximum penalty is death and Saddam said yesterday that as a soldier, he deserved to meet this fate by firing squad rather than the gallows. His request is unlikely to be granted.
Iraqi law states an execution must be by hanging and Saddam appointed himself commander-in-chief, never actually serving in the military.