“We cannot attend any trial session unless the chief judge resigns, because he holds a personal grudge against my client,” Saddam’s chief counsel, Khalil al-Dulaimi, told the Reuters news agency in the Jordanian capital of Amman before the hearing began.
Since taking over proceedings on the weekend, Judge Raouf Abdel Rahman has tried to push through the much- delayed trial but finds himself in a contest of wills with the former Iraqi president.
Juge Abdel Rahman is from the Kurdish town of Halabja, where 5,000 people, including some of his relatives, were gassed to death by Saddam’s army in 1988.
The judge’s association with the massacre has drawn criticisms that he lacks the impartiality required to oversee the trial.
“After what happened… the defence team was confronted with only one choice – the boycott of a court that has no legitimacy, (is) unconstitutional and has already taken a prior decision to convict the president,” Mr Dulaimi said.
Judge Abdel Rahman is the third to be appointed to the trial after chief judge Rizkar Mohammed Amin quit last month and his initial replacement was accused of being a member of Saddam’s Baath Party.
Saddam and seven others are on trial for the 1982 killings of 148 villagers in the Shi’ite town of Dujail.
If convicted, Saddam could face death by hanging.
The latest hearing was opened to the public after Judge Abdel Rahman held a half- hour closed session during which it was unclear if Saddam attended.
Once the open session began, chief prosecutor Jaafar al-Mussawi called for an adjournment until the defendants could be compelled to return to the court.
However, in the absence of five of the accused and Saddam’s defence team, Judge Abdel Rahman determined that court-appointed attorneys would suffice to defend the three defendants present and the hearing continued.
The first complainant to address the court was a woman who lost eight family members in Dujail.
From behind a curtain, that has concealed the identities of most witnesses to date, the woman said: “I want to know where Saddam took my family.”
Another female witness gave evidence against Saddam’s half-brother Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, the former head of the Mukhabarat intelligence service.
“Barzan personally supervised my stripping and then kicked me three times on my naked chest. I still feel the pain and for many years was unable to breathe (properly),” the witness testified.
A third witness said Barzan had frequently watched her torture and nearly killed her at one point.
“Barzan once put me on a doorstep, was about to shoot me but something made him stop and I was saved,” she told the court.
In all, five prosecution witnesses appeared during the session with more testimony expected to be heard tomorrow.