SADDAM HUSSEIN used his murder trial to mount a political attack on the United States yesterday, accusing President Bush of resorting to deceit to topple his regime.

Repeating allegations that American prison guards had beaten him in captivity, Saddam again dominated proceedings on a day when exchanges in the courtroom overshadowed the testimony of Iraqi witnesses. “The White House are liars,” he said. “They said Iraq had chemical weapons. They lied again when they said I had not been beaten.

“Zionists and the US Administration hate Saddam. They said I had ties to terrorism, but later acknowledged that I did not.” He added: “A pox on Bush and his father.”

In theatrical exchanges, an assistant prosecutor asked to resign and the defence team threatened to leave court.

The White House has dismissed the former dictator’s allegations as preposterous and accused him of trying to deflect attention from testimony by witnesses of torture under his regime. Saddam has offered no evidence of the alleged abuse, and court officials in Baghdad said that he had made no official complaint.

Raed Juhi, the chief investigative judge, said after the hearing: “We didn’t receive a single complaint of abuse from the defendants even when we asked them about their treatment. They have a constant power supply, hygiene and good food.”

Three witnesses, testifying anonymously from behind a curtain, said that Saddam’s security forces carried out widespread torture after an assassination attempt in Dujail in 1982. “The beating was continuous,” one said, recalling the abuse of suspects in Abu Ghraib prison. “They would take a group into the hallway, the guards would hit them with cables and ask the group to crawl. The women would watch this and scream because their kids were being hit.”

When Saddam’s cross-examination was interrupted by laughter from the public gallery, the former President loudly remarked: “Let the monkeys laugh in their trees. The lion ignores them.”

Saddam and his seven coaccused deny charges of murdering more than 140 Shias in Dujail in 1982.

The hearing was adjourned until January 24.

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