THE tumultuous trial of Saddam Hussein and his top lieutenants came to a close yesterday, ending in acrimony just as it began ten months ago.

The deposed dictator — who was not in court — must wait until October to hear whether he will face execution for his alleged role in the killing of 148 Shias in 1982, officials said.

The protracted hearings had been interrupted by the murder of three defence lawyers, the departure of two chief judges, hunger strikes, boycotts by the entire defence team and shouting matches between the former leader and his judges.

The summing-up arguments were made by court-appointed defence lawyers, whose representations were far stronger than had been expected, raising the possibility that some of the eight defendants may be cleared of charges of crimes against humanity.

“It’s very possible you’ll see some acquittals based on the evidence, or the lack of evidence,” said Michael Newton, an American expert on international criminal law, who has been an adviser and observer at the Iraqi High Tribunal. He would not speculate on which of the defendants, who include Taha Yassin Ramadan, the former Vice-President, and Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, Saddam’s half- brother, might be cleared.

“I think the defence counsels appointed by the court did as good a job as could have been done, based on the evidence,” Mr Newton told The Times. “What we saw in the courtroom was not a sham or a show trial. It was a real trial based on the facts.”

The trial, once derided by Saddam’s half-brother as a “daughter of a whore”, ended yesterday with the final appearances of Mr Ramadan and Awad al-Bandar, who headed the former Revolutionary Court that allegedly oversaw the imprisonment and execution of many of the villagers of Dujail, where 148 men were killed after a failed attempt to kill Saddam in July 1982.

Each appeared alone in court to reject the defence lawyers appointed by the court. Mr Ramadan, looking small and frail, put up a token show of defiance before listening patiently as his lawyers argued that the prosecution had failed to establish a firm chain of command that linked him to the killings.

As soon as Mr al-Bandar marched into court he and Raouf Abdel Rahman, the Kurdish presiding judge, started shouting at each other before the judge snapped: “Be quiet and sit down, stupid.”

When the judge offered him the chance to summarise his case, the former Baathist judge refused to speak and the case came to an abrupt close. The court will recess until October 16, allowing the five judges to consider the evidence and closing arguments before announcing verdicts and sentences.

If found guilty of crimes against humanity they could face death by hanging. Saddam pleaded on Tuesday for a firing squad rather than the gallows, arguing that as a military man, he should be shot if found guilty. Although Mr al-Bandar’s defence rested on an argument that the court lacked the jurisdiction to try the accused for crimes committed 24 years ago, lawyers for Saddam and Mr Ramadan argued that neither could be held responsible for the killings, pointing to gaps in the prosecution’s attempt to establish a chain of command that could incriminate them.

Even if some of the defendants are acquitted, they face a new trial starting on August 21 for genocide against the Kurdish people during the 1980s. The so-called Anfal campaign included the gassing of 5,000 Kurds in the village of Halabja in 1988. In addition, investigating judges are preparing a dozen other cases against the former leaders of the regime, including the brutal suppression of a Shia uprising in southern Iraq in 1991.

TRIAL BY NUMBERS

31 months since capture of Saddam

282 days since trial began

148 died in 1982 massacre at Dujail, the trial focus

16 days spent by Saddam on hunger strike

3 defence lawyers murdered

4 defence witnesses who said that they were threatened or bribed to testify

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