This latest setback in the much- delayed trial comes as defence lawyers for Saddam and his seven co-accused dig in their heels over complaints Judge Abdel Rahman is biased and should be replaced.
The judge has been intent on restoring order to the proceedings since taking over from Judge Rizkar Mohammed Amin who quit the trial last month.
He pushed ahead with hearings yesterday despite being faced with a boycott by Saddam, his lawyers and four other defendants yesterday.
But today, his resolve to continue with hearings during the absence of Saddam and three fellow defendants faltered.
After an hour and a half in which the court heard testimony from two witnesses, Judge Abdel Rahman decided to adjourn the trial for one week.
“Because of the persistence of Saddam Hussein, Barzan al-Tikriti, Taha Yassin Ramadan and Awad al-Bandar not to attend, the court has decided not to call them for this session and to review their opposition,” Judge Abdel Rahman told the court.
Trial’s history of chaos
Saddam and the seven co-accused are charged with the murder of 148 villagers from the town of Dujail who were killed in 1982 in an apparent reprisal for an attempt on the former president’s life.
The trial began in a blaze of publicity in October nearly two years after his capture but has since descended into chaos amid heated outbursts, a string of walkouts and boycotts, the killing of two defence lawyers and Judge Amin’s departure.
Saddam’s lawyers have delivered a list of 11 demands they have insisted must be met before they will return, including the sacking of Judge Abdel Rahman and shifting the trial “to a country which can offer security.”
Judge Abdel Rahman’s impartiality in the proceedings has been called into question because he had family members who were killed during the gassing of 5,000 Kurdish Iraqis in Halabja in 1988.
Sectarian rifts loom large
As the standoff continues, hopes that Saddam’s trial would help ease tensions between Shi’ite and Sunni Iraqis have faded.
The United States’ national intelligence chief has told a US Senate committee that splits between majority Shi’ites and the former Sunni elite were stalling efforts to build a cohesive Iraqi security force.
“Iraqi security forces require better command and control mechanisms to improve their effectiveness and are experiencing difficulty in managing ethnic and sectarian divides among their units and personnel,” John Negroponte said.
His words underscoring concerns from some analysts that Iraqi security forces could split into sectarian factions that end up fighting each other rather than rooting out the insurgency that continues to plague the nation.
The discovery of 16 partially buried bodies, the apparent victims of tit-for-tat sectarian killings in Baghdad’s eastern outskirts, has added weight to the fears.
A shepherd stumbled on the grisly find.
All the victims appeared to be aged between 30 and 40 years and wore civilian clothes but had no identity documents on their bodies.
Each had been shot multiple times, and was bound and blindfolded police said.
Fresh attacks claim lives
In further violence, two bomb blasts have killed at least 11 people in eastern Baghdad.
The separate attacks occurred about 20 minutes apart.
The first explosion at around 5 pm local time involved a car bomb which was detonated near a service station and killed at least two people.
The second is believed to have been a suicide bombing at an outdoor market which left at least nine people dead and wounded 57 others.
Meanwhile, five US soldiers have been killed in three separate attacks across the country.
A US air strike on a house in the Shi’ite district of Sadr City damaged several buildings and killed a young woman, residents reported.
The military had no details on casualties, but Abdul Hussein Shanoof said his daughter Ikhlas Abdul Hussein had been killed, according to a report by the Associated Press (AP).
The incident has sparked fresh tensions in the city, which has been the scene of fierce clashes between Shi’ite militiamen loyal to radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and American forces from 2004 until early last year.
“These military operations aim at weakening the supporters of the Sadrist movement, are considered provocative and represent a clear violation against the security situation in the country,” Transport Minister and al-Sadr supporter, Salam al-Maliki said.