Saddam trial resumes with torture testimony

Former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein (front C) stands during the start of his trial along with other co-accused.. PHOTO: AFP

The hearing got off to a chaotic start as the presiding judge called a recess just minutes after "Witness A" began to testify amid a row over whether or not her heavily disguised voice could be understood.

Technical problems apparently resolved, the hearing resumed with the unnamed witness recalling harrowing moments from the early 1980s when she was tortured by intelligence agents and then flung into Baghdad's notorious Abu Ghraib jail.

The woman -- just 16 years old when she was detained and held for four years -- said with her voice electronically disguised that a man ordered her to undress before pistol whipping her and lashing her with cables, her legs up.