The trial of deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and seven co-defendants for crimes against humanity was set to resume on Monday.
BAGHDAD: The trial of deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and seven co-defendants for crimes against humanity was set to resume on Monday with further defense testimony after sustained attacks against the prosecutor.
Defense witnesses testified last week that Chief Prosecutor Jaafar al-Mussawi had offered money to potential witnesses against Saddam in the case over the arrest and execution of hundreds of Shiites in the village of Dujail following a failed assassination attempt against the Iraqi leader in 1982.
The direct attacks on the prosecution represented a marked departure for the defense strategy which previously had provided character witnesses to defend their clients or distance them from the events in Dujail.
Following the adjournment of the trial on Wednesday, several witnesses were detained.
"He gave me $500 and they threatened me if I ever told anyone about it," one witness said of Mussawi on Wednesday, in testimony that prompted defense calls for the trial to be adjourned.
"They wanted me to give false testimony against Saddam Hussein in an American military base in March or April 2004," added the anonymous witness who was 14 at the time of the assassination bid.
Witnesses charged on Tuesday that the prosecutor had visited Dujail in 2004 to drum up testimony against Saddam -- and they also claimed many of the alleged victims of the crackdown were still alive.
The prosecution says hundreds of villagers were rounded up after the assassination bid, many were tortured and 148 executed.
Saddam and his seven co-defendants are being tried on charges of crimes against humanity including murder and torture over the crackdown and face execution by hanging if found guilty.
On Wednesday the defense produced a video showing the prosecutor at an event there in 2004.
Mussawi responded denying that the person in the video was him and produced a Dawa Party official who looked like him and had actually attended the event.
The prosecutor then struck back at his accusers, calling for the witness testimony of the past two days to be disallowed.
"We note that yesterday and today, there has been a fabricated attack against the prosecution, it is obvious that the witnesses are being coached and trained to do that," he said.
Mussawi said he would file a complaint against lead Saddam defense counsel Khalil al-Dulaimi and the Dubai-based Al-Arabiya channel that originally aired the footage from the Dujail rally.
US officials would not confirm the number of defense witnesses detained, but the Dubai-based satellite network Al-Arabiya said four witnesses were being held.
"They are being detained for an investigation so that they remain in Baghdad to ask them questions about their testimonies and the allegations that prosecutor Jaafar al-Mussawi was at this celebration in Dujail," said a US official close to the court.
The trial has been marred by the murder of two defense lawyers and the January resignation of the first chief judge, as well as frequent outbursts by Saddam and his co-defendants.
So far, 46 defense witnesses have testified and once this testimony is complete, defense lawyers will give their closing statements, followed by defendants' final statements, which will mark the end of the trial.
The proceedings could conclude by the end of June, a US official close to the court said last week, with a verdict coming as early as July.
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