The trial of ousted Iraqi president Saddam Hussein and seven former aides was set to resume yesterday in Baghdad as rebels launched a series of bomb, mortar and gun attacks across the city.
At least 11 Iraqis were killed in the city and two north of the capital, while some 30 people were wounded, an interior ministry official said.
In one roadside bomb attack against a US patrol near the airport, on the western outskirts of the city, six Iraqi civilians died and 13 were hurt. There was no immediate word on US casualties.
Defendants were expected to start to testify yesterday -- the 15th hearing in the trial -- as to their role in the killing of 148 villagers from the village of Dujail, where Saddam escaped an assassination attempt in 1982, chief prosecutor Jaafar Mussawi said.
"After hearing from the defendants, the tribunal will listen to any witnesses called by the accused," he said.
He did not specify which defendant would testify first.
"Lawyers for several of the defendants have asked for some witnesses to be heard, but neither Saddam nor his half-brother Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti have yet done so," Mussawi said.
The court is then expected to adjourn while the panel of five judges considers specific charges against each of the defendants.
After this, the prosecution and defense will be required to present further evidence and testimony, before final summing up.
Saddam would be hanged immediately without undergoing further trials if found guilty and sentenced to death in the ongoing court case against him, Mussawi said yesterday.
"If the court passes a death sentence on any of the defendants in the Dujail case, the law is clear, the sentence must be carried out within 30 days following the appeal," he told Iraqia state TV.
US officials close to the court have suggested the trial might last until June or July.
During the last dramatic hearing on March 1, Saddam accepted for the first time in court that he had ordered the trial of Shiite suspects implicated in the assassination attempt and signed an order to destroy their orchards.
"If putting a defendant on trial on charges of shooting at a head of state ... is considered a crime, then you have the head of state in your hands," Saddam told the court.
Lawyers for Saddam met their client on Saturday for 90 minutes ahead of the trial.
"He was in good health and good spirit," Boshra al-Khalil, one of the defense lawyers said, adding that the defense team would attend yesterday's hearing.
The defense team has on earlier occasions boycotted the court, questioning the legitimacy of the Iraqi High Tribunal.
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