[JURIST] Khalil al-Dulaimi, chief defense counsel for Saddam Hussein [JURIST news archive], appeared in court Monday, presented 12 demands to the judge to be satisfied to end the ongoing defense team boycott, and stormed out of court after the presiding judge told him that Arab and foreign lawyers may only appear as advisors to Hussein. Al-Dulaimi demanded an investigation into reports that one of Hussein's co-defendants was abused by prison guards, and one into the theft of defense counsel documents [JURIST reports]. Defense lawyers have been boycotting the trial [JURIST news archive] since September.

Hussein is on trial on genocide charges [JURIST news archive; BBC timeline] for allegedly killing 100,000 Kurds during the so-called "Anfal" campaigns [HRW backgrounder] in the late 1980s. In the first case against Hussein to go to trial, prosecutors sought the death penalty against Hussein [JURIST report] for allegedly killing, torturing and illegally detaining Dujail residents, including 148 Shiites [JURIST report]. The chief prosecutor in the Dujail case said Sunday that the Dujail verdict may be delayed [JURIST report] past the scheduled Nov. 5 date to give the court more time to review evidence and make findings. Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said Monday that he hopes the court will render its verdict soon [Reuters report], noting that the Dujail proceedings have continued for too long. Reuters has more.