IRAQ: Saddam Hussein refused to enter court yesterday, bringing his often chaotic trial to yet another halt until the judge decided to press on without him.
After telling the court to "go to hell" the night before, the former president effectively boycotted the fifth session of his trial after spending most of the day in talks with lawyers in a battle of wills with the Kurdish presiding judge.
Judge Rizgar Mohammed Amin eventually opted to push ahead with proceedings and heard testimony from two witnesses before adjourning until December 21st - six days after next week's election for the first full parliament of the post-Saddam era.
Judge Amin said he would use the two-week break to consider a defence motion to review the way evidence was given.
One of Saddam's defence lawyers said the former president would attend when the court reconvenes after the election.
As the witnesses gave their testimony, Saddam's chair was empty at the front of the defendant's penned-in dock in the marbled Baghdad courtroom. The witnesses, speaking from behind a curtain for fear of their lives, described years of interrogations and abuses they say they suffered in Saddam's jails in the 1980s.
"They told us they wanted to speak to us for 10 minutes," a man identified only as witness G said, recalling how security forces rounded up people in the Shia town of Dujail in 1982 following a failed attempt to assassinate Saddam. "We were gone for 4½ years."
Saddam's no-show is the most dramatic twist so far in a trial that has been plagued by delays, the assassination of two attorneys, faulty equipment in court and frequently rambling witness testimony since it opened on October 19th.
It has already been adjourned twice - once to allow the defence time to prepare its case and once after the two defence lawyers were killed. The latest adjournment had been widely expected because of the election.
Under Iraqi law, which forms the basis of the tribunal's rules in an amalgam with other principles of international law, the trial can continue to its conclusion without Saddam. The court is merely obliged to keep him informed of developments.
The trial is at heart about the killings of 148 people from Dujail.
Some observers have voiced doubts about the strength of the case, and the judge has instructed some witnesses to focus their testimony. The UN's human rights chief in Iraq says the trial has little prospect of meeting international standards.