BAGHDAD, Nov 26: Shrouded by fear after two defence lawyers were slain, the trial of Saddam Hussein resumes on Monday with the former Iraqi president and seven former cohorts facing possible execution.

Saddam Hussein and his co-defendants face charges including murder, imprisonment and torture over the killing of 148 villagers 23 years ago in what several Iraqi newspapers have dubbed the Trial of the Century.

On Monday, the court is expected to call the first witnesses for the prosecution, who may testify from behind screens or with faces masked to protect their anonymity, according to a US official.

At the dramatic opening of the trial on Oct 19, the eight men all pleaded not guilty, with a combative Saddam challenging the court’s legitimacy and declaring himself president of Iraq.

Saddam has been accused of many other crimes against humanity, including the repression of Kurds and Shias, but Iraqi sources said the massacre of villages from Dujail in 1982 is the easiest case to try.

Defence lawyers had threatened a boycott after two colleagues were killed, and security concerns are so high that officials refused even to specify how many witnesses were due to testify over the coming week when the court plans to be in session for four days.

“It’s up to the individual witnesses whether or not they show their faces or whether their identity is disguised in some other way,” the US official said.

“One would expect that a number of witnesses will want their identity protected,” he said, adding that a witness protection programme had been put in place.

Witnesses will offer evidence related to the killings of villagers after a failed assassination attempt against Saddam Hussein in 1982 in the village of Dujail, north of Baghdad.

One witness, Wadah Ismail al Sheikh, a former prison official under Saddam, has already given evidence from his hospital bed, where he recently died.

Saddam’s habit of videotaping all his orders to ensure they were carried out has backfired against him, said a source close to the investigation.—AFP