Saddam: We're on hunger strike

The new judge has tried to keep order amid the defendants' disruptions.
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- After shouts, insults, arguments and walkouts, Saddam Hussein and three of his co-defendants unveiled a new show-stealing tactic Tuesday: They announced in court that they had gone on a hunger strike.
Saddam said the strike was called to protest the tough way chief judge Raouf Abdel-Rahman has conducted the court since he took over last month.
"For three days we have been holding a hunger strike protesting against your way of treating us -- against you and your masters," the former Iraqi leader said. Their claims could not be independently confirmed.
Abdel-Rahman has tried to impose order in a court where outbursts and abuse, mostly by Saddam and his former intelligence chief and half brother Barzan Ibrahim, have often overshadowed the proceedings. The disruptions led to criticism of Abdel-Rahman's predecessor, fellow Kurd Rizgar Mohammed Amin, for not doing enough to rein in the brothers.
Prosecutors build case
But after a short period of shouting and verbal abuse at the start of Tuesday's session, the court was calm as prosecutors tried for a second consecutive day to build their case of the ousted president's direct role in executions and imprisonment of hundreds of Shiites in the 1980s.
A key document presented to the court allegedly showed that Saddam approved rewards for intelligence agents involved in the crackdown against residents of Dujail, a mainly Shiite town north of Baghdad, after a 1982 assassination attempt against him there.
If convicted in the killing of nearly 150 Shiites from Dujail, Saddam and his seven co-defendants could face death by hanging.
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