BAGHDAD, March 12 (Xinhuanet) -- Trial of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein and his seven aids charged with crimes against humanity resumed in a Baghdad court on Sunday.

    All defense lawyers, including former U.S. attorney general Ramsey Clark and former Qatari justice minister Najib al-Nuami, were present at the court located in the heavily-fortified Green Zone in central Baghdad.

    Chief Judge Raouf Rashid Abdul Rahman called on the defendants to present their testimonies one by one. Mizhar Abdullah Ruwayid, a former Baath party official in Dujail, has begun his testimony, the first among the defendants.

    Saddam and other co-defendents have not appeared in court yet.

    It is the 15th session of the lengthy trial, which began last October and has since been marred by the killings of two defense lawyers and stormy court proceedings.

    Saddam and his seven high-profile co-defendants are facing charges of crimes against humanity, including the killing of over 140 Shiite countrymen in the northern village of Dujail after a failed assassination attempt on Saddam in 1982. Enditem