FORMER Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein went on trial today charged with ordering the massacre of nearly 150 Shias more than 20 years ago.
The deposed president appeared in court under tight security in the former headquarters of his Baath Party, nearly two years after his capture by US forces.
The 68-year-old faces charges relating to the 1982 massacre that could carry the death pe
nalty if he is convicted.
Dozens of supporters of Saddam took to the streets in Tikrit, home to Saddam's family and an area which profited from his patronage during his rule, as the trial got under way.
Several mortar attacks were also reported to have taken place in Anbar province, a vast province west of Baghdad where Sunni insurgents are strong.
A defiant Saddam, wearing a dark suit with an open-necked shirt, carrying an old copy of the Koran, gestured with his hand to slow down as he entered the court. He then refused to answer when the judge asked him to identify himself and instead began to quiz the judges' authority.
"You know me. You are an Iraqi and you know who I am. Who are you? What does this court want?" he said.
Saddam told the Iraqi chief judge - named today as Rizgar Mohammed Amin, an ethnic Kurd - that he did not recognise the legitimacy of the court.
Saddam and the seven others are facing charges that they ordered the killing in 1982 of nearly 150 people in the mainly Shia village of Dujail north of Baghdad after a failed attempt on the former dictator's life.
Saddam added: "I preserve my constitutional rights as the president of Iraq. I do not recognise the body that has authorised you and I don't recognise this aggression . . . I do not respond to this so-called court, with all due respect."
Saddam's defence lawyers were today expected to ask for a three-month adjournment. The court is expected to grant one, though for how long is not known.
According to Iraqi law judges can issue a guilty verdict if they are "satisfied" by the evidence, seen as lower standard of proof than "convinced beyond a reasonable doubt".
Saddam's defence lawyer Khalil al-Dulaimi yesterday said he would ask for the postponement so he can better prepare the case.
He will also challenge the special tribunal's competence to try the case.
The trial is the first of what could be several cases brought against Saddam for atrocities carried out during his 23-year-rule.
The court building is in Baghdad's Green Zone, the heavily fortified district where Iraq's government, parliament and the US Embassy are located.
It was ringed today with ten-foot blast walls and US and Iraqi troops, with several Humvees and at least one tank deployed outside.
The trial was being broadcast with a 20-minute delay on state-run Iraqi television and on satellite stations across Iraq and the Arab world.
Many Iraqis, particularly from the Shia Muslim majority and the Kurdish minority - the two communities most oppressed by Saddam's regime - have eagerly awaited the chance to see the man who ruled Iraq brought to justice.
The trial will also be a test of the credentials of the new Shia and Kurd-dominated ruling parties as to whether they give the former dictator a fair hearing.
Human rights group have criticised the government for trying to influence the trial and fear considerable US logistical and financial aid to the tribunal could lend credibility to charges that it will mete out "victors' justice".
Prosecutors also want to see Saddam and his officials tried for other atrocities, including the Anfal Operation, a military crackdown on the Kurds in the late 1980s that killed some 180,000 people; the suppression of Kurdish and Shia revolts in 1991; and the deaths of 5000 Kurds in a 1988 poison gas attack on the village of Halabja.
