Trial session held without Saddam

Chief judge Rauf Abdel Rahman adjourned the session to April 17 after the shortest session of the trial since it began in October.

"The trial is adjourned to April 17 for experts to verify the signatures of the defendants who were not in the court today," Abdel Rahman said.

"We adjourn to give the experts time to accomplish their task of verifying the signatures."

He said the signatures of defendants Saddam, Barzan Ibrahim Tikriti, Ali Daeh Ali, Abdullah Khadem Ruweid, Mezhar Abdullah Ruweid have to be verified.

The prosecution has presented enormous volumes of documents with signatures of Saddam and other defendants linking them to the massacre of 148 Shias from Dujail village in the mid-1980s.