As the trial resumed on Monday after a three-week adjournment, Judge Raouf Abdel Rahman read out the charges that stemmed from the killing of 148 Shi’ites villagers, including women and children, in Dujail after an attempt on Saddam's life in 1982.
Saddam smiled as he listened to the charges and defiantly told the judge he was still Iraq's president.
"This statement cannot influence me or shake a hair of my head. What matters to me is the Iraqi people and myself," Saddam said. "I am president of Iraq by the will of the Iraqi people."
Replying, the judge said: "You were, but not now." Judge Rahman said some of the men and women taken prisoner in Dujail by Saddam's security forces were tortured with "blows to the head and electric shocks" and that five died under torture.
He also read out the names of 32 of the 148 who were under 18 and therefore should not have been executed under then-existing Iraqi and international law, the judge said.
The court then called Saddam's half-brother Barzan al-Tikriti, former chief of the feared intelligence security forces, who dismissed charges read out to him as "lies".
The 69-year-old Saddam faces a death sentence if found guilty of the crimes. Six other co-accused are also being tried for the Dujail case, the first of many trials the ousted leader could face.
Defence case
Once detailed charges have been read against each defendant the defence can begin presenting its case, which could mean witnesses will be presented as early as Monday.
The trial began on October 19, 2005, and a US official close to the proceedings told news agency AFP the trial was expected to finish by mid-summer.
Before sitting today the court had heard evidence from prosecution witnesses and had been presented with documents over its last 23 sessions.
Chief prosecutor Jaafar al-Mussawi told AFP it would be for the court to decide how many of the expected 60 defence witnesses would be heard in the new session.
The trial has been marred by the murder of two defense lawyers and the January resignation of the first chief judge, who critics say failed to clamp down on Saddam and his outbursts.
International human rights advocates say the trial continues to be conducted well below international legal standards.
After the Dujail trial, Saddam and six others are scheduled to face charges of genocide over the 1988 Anfal campaign that left an estimated 100,000 Kurds dead.