Iraqi guards at Saddam Hussein's trial manhandled a defence lawyer from the court today before witnesses gave testimony for some of his co-defendants.
Lebanese attorney Bushra Khalil, a vocal presence in previous televised appearances for the defence, yelled in protest and threw off her robe as she was bundled from the chamber.
Amid the clamour, Saddam stood to object and declared: "I am the president of Iraq", only to be told sharply by Judge Raouf Abdul Rahman: "No you are a defendant."
At the start of the hearing, Ms Khalil had objected to her ejection from court in a previous session. After the argument with Abdul Rahman rose in pitch, he ordered her removed from court and described her behaviour as "an insult to justice".
Proceedings in the heavily guarded courtroom in Baghdad's Green Zone, which have seen occasional such ejections in the past, then moved ahead with two witnesses speaking in favour of Baathist judge Awad-al Bandar.
Following testimony last week for the four local officials on trial with Saddam, Mr Bandar was the first of the four senior Baath party figures on trial to present defence witnesses.
One man, speaking openly without the protection of a screen used by many other witnesses, praised Bandar's running of the Revolutionary Court that sentenced 148 Shia men to death over an assassination attempt on Saddam at Dujail in 1982.
"Did I ever kick any defence lawyer out of court?" Mr Bandar asked his witness, a former court employee, making ironic capital of the earlier scenes of uproar.
A week ago, all eight defendants were charged with crimes against humanity over the killings and detentions, deportations and tortures to which 399 people from Dujail were subjected in reprisal for the attempt on Saddam's life.
Saddam refused to plead and like the others a not guilty plea was entered for him.