Saddam Hussein refused to attend his trial for crimes against humanity today, bringing the often chaotic proceedings to a halt before the presiding judge decided to press on with the hearing without him.
Saddam Hussein gestures during his trial in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone yesterday.
After telling the judges to "go to hell" the night before, the former dictator boycotted what would have been the fifth session of his trial and spent most of the day in talks with lawyers and a battle of wills with the Kurdish presiding judge.
Judge Rizgar Amin discussed the stand-off with Saddam's attorneys behind closed doors inside the marbled courtroom in Baghdad before eventually deciding to push ahead. Saddam's seven co-defendants then returned to the court and a new witness was called.
Saddam's place at the front of the penned-in dock was conspicuously empty. He said at the close of yesterday's hearing that he would not attend an "unfair" trial and complained of exhaustion and being denied a change of clothes.
The 68-year-old's no-show is the most dramatic twist so far in a trial that has been plagued by delays, faulty equipment and rambling testimony since it opened on October 19th.
It has already been adjourned twice - once to allow the defence time to prepare their case and once after two defence lawyers were shot dead. As soon at the trial resumed, Saddam's attorney Khalil Dulaimi said he would meet court officials at the end of the day to discuss security for his team.
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 but his absence will deprive millions of Iraqis the chance to see their former president in the dock.
A week before the first election for a full-term parliament since US forces overthrew Saddam in 2003, the Shi'ite Islamist-led government is keen to show the long-oppressed majority community that their former tormentor faces justice.
Saddam and his co-defendants, who face hanging, have said their trial is a sham and have repeatedly disrupted it, haranguing the judge and chief prosecutor and accusing witnesses, most of whom have testified from behind a curtain out of fear, of lying.
The trial is dealing with the killing of 148 people in Dujail after a 1982 attempt to assassinate the former president in the Shi'ite Muslim village north of Baghdad.
Yesterday, the court heard five witnesses who said they were jailed after the killings. All were hidden from sight and spoke through a voice modifier to disguise their identities.
Some observers have voiced doubts about the strength of the Dujail case, and the judge has instructed some witnesses to focus their rambling testimony.
The UN's human rights chief in Iraq says he sees little prospect of the trial meeting international standards. International human rights and legal observers have raised concerns about witness protection, security and the fact that the death penalty cannot be commuted if it is imposed.