Special report: Trial of Saddam Hussein

    BAGHDAD, April 17 (Xinhua) -- The trial of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein and his seven co-defendants has beenad journed again until April 19, chief judge Rauf Abdel Rahman announced on Monday.

Former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein speaks at the trial on April 17, 2006. [Photo: Xinhua/AFP]

    The adjournment came after a brief session on Monday morning when all the eight defendants appeared in the court.

    Chief judge Rahman said the trial was adjourned because experts needed more time to verify Saddam's signatures in documents connected to the killing of 148 Shiite men in the 1980s.

    At the beginning of Monday's proceedings, Saddam's lawyer Khalil Dulaimi demanded the resignation of chief judge Rauf Abdel Rahman, accusing of bias.

    The justice swiftly rejected the request.

    "There is no any kind of partiality toward the defendants and there is no personal or political attitude against the defendants as individual or group," Rahman said.

    "This case would go on according to the law and nothing else," he confirmed.

    The court proceeding on Monday's session focused on the authenticity of Saddam's signature on documents connected to the crackdown on Shiites.

    Criminal experts read their report in the court and said that the signatures on some documents were Saddam's, which proved his connection with the crackdown.

    Saddam and his half-brother Barzan Ibrahim, a former intelligence chief, have refused to give the Iraqi tribunal in Baghdad a sample of their handwriting.

    Lawyers of the defense requested the court to appoint other experts, saying that the court experts are employees of the Interior Ministry.

    "They cannot be independent when they have links to the Interior Ministry and the state," said Khamis al-Obeidi, one of Saddam's lawyers.

    Chief prosecutor Jaafar al-Mussawi said that the criminal experts did not check all the documents of the case.

    Rahman ordered the court be adjourned until Wednesday because the criminal experts needed more time to verify Saddam's signatures in more documents connected to the killing of 148 Shiite men in the 1980s.

    The lengthy trial of Saddam and his seven aides, which started in October last year, has experienced repeated adjournments ever since.

    Facing charges against humanity including the killing of 148 Shiite men in the northern Dujail village after an assassination attempt on Saddam's life in 1982, Saddam and his seven aides would be executed if convicted. Enditem