[JURIST] The Saddam Hussein trial [JURIST news archive] continued Thursday in Baghdad with testimony from Awad al-Bandar [Wikipedia profile], the head of the Revolutionary Court who sentenced 148 Shiites to death in 1984 [execution order]. Al-Bandar, one of the seven co-defendants on trial with Hussein at the Iraqi High Criminal Court [official website; JURIST news archive], took the stand for the second time Thursday, and was the only defendant present for the session. Al-Bandar insisted that the group of Shiites had received a fair trial [JURIST report] before receiving their death sentences and said that the defendants had confessed to plotting Hussein's assassination. Though he acknowledged that there was only one defense lawyer present for trial, al-Bandar stressed that the sentence had been issued "in accordance with the law" and refuted evidence that some of the defendants had been minors, saying that an identity card showing a victim to be age 15 had been forged.

Al-Bandar's testimony follows a day of testimony from Hussein, who took the stand [JURIST report] for six hours of questioning Wednesday. During Wednesday's proceedings, one of Hussein's lawyers, Bushra Khalil, was removed from the courtroom [VOA report] after she showed pictures depicting the alleged abuse of Iraqi detainees at the hands of US soldiers. The trial has now been adjourned until April 12. AP has more.