SADDAM HUSSEIN failed to show up for his trial in Baghdad yesterday, leaving an empty black chair in the dock only hours after he told the court: “Go to hell.”

After extensive delays the judges proceeded with the murder case, for which the former dictator’s seven co-defendants were all present.

Saddam’s walkout was the latest stalling tactic in a trial that is drawing increasing criticism from Iraqis impatient over lengthy adjournments, technical problems and the judges’ failure to stop witnesses digressing and defendants from shouting interruptions.

Incidents outside the court also appeared intended to derail the proceedings. In Kirkuk gunmen killed three Iraqi policemen when they stormed a hospital to rescue a wounded man arrested for plotting to kill a judge. The suspect was captured with seven other Sunni Arabs on November 26, allegedly carrying an order from Saddam’s former deputy, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, to kill the chief investigating magistrate Judge Raa’d Juhi, police said.

In Baghdad armed men kidnapped the eight-year-old son of a trial guard, although trial officials said they were unaware of it. Many children are kidnapped in Iraq for ransom.

In court witnesses continued to give evidence in Saddam’s absence during which, court officials said, he consulted his defence team. The discussions are thought to have centred on security for defence lawyers, two of whom have been murdered since the trial began.

The witnesses, speaking behind a curtain, described the torture they suffered when they were rounded up with hundreds of other Shias in Dujail in 1982, after a failed assassination attempt on Saddam.

One, identified as Witness F, said he saw a prisoner tortured to death in jail where he was taken by the Baath regime, but said he had not seen anyone killed in Dujail. He also claimed to have been taken to the Baath party headquarters, where Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, Saddam’s half-brother and intelligence chief, was present.

“When my turn came, the investigator asked me my name and he turned to Barzan and asked ‘What we shall do with him?’ Barzan replied: ‘Take him. He might be useful.’ We were almost dead because of the beatings,” he told the court.

After Barzan objected, the judge questioned the witness, who conceded that he was blindfolded at the time and only believed the voice was Barzan’s because other prisoners told him so.

Barzan complained that he had spent more than eight months in solitary confinement without windows, air conditioning, electricity or running water and had been provided with poor quality cigarettes.

“I couldn’t tell if it was day or night,” he said. “For one year I did not drink tea or coffee. We had little food.”

The trial was adjourned until December 21 when Saddam will attend, officials said. The judge said he would use the fortnight break to consider defence protests at the way witnesses were giving evidence.

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