The trial of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and six codefendants on genocide charges was adjourned till Tuesday after the court heard two Kurdish witnesses on Monday.

Monday's session came 19 days after the last session on Nov. 8 when Chief Judge Muhammad Ureiybi adjourned the trial to give the defendants enough time to assemble a list of witnesses.

On the 23rd session, a subdued Saddam and six codefendants were present at the court along with some lawyers in the defense team, including Badie Aref, who is defending former military intelligence chief Farhan al-Jubouri.

Aref said that during the recess, a U.S. official came to his office and told him that he had the power to convict or acquit his defendant, and specified which defense witnesses he should use in the trial.

"He forced me to present his list of more than 30 names of witnesses, whom I don't know, while I only have ten witnesses... This is a conspiracy and can't be done," Aref said.

On Monday's session, Taimor Abdallah Rokhzai, a Kurdish witness, who now lives in Washington, DC, recounted how Kurdish villagers were taken out into the desert and murdered by soldiers.

"There were ditches and we were forced to line up inside to be shot by the soldiers," Rokhzai, 30, told the court.

He said that he saw his mother and sister along with the other detainees killed, but he was only shot in his shoulder.

After hearing a second witness, the judge concluded the hearing with a stern admonishment to the defendants to prepare a list of witnesses which should have been submitted Monday. The court then adjourned the session until Tuesday.

Saddam and six of his aides are facing charges of genocide against Kurds in the trial of operation Anfal (Spoils of War) military campaign in which prosecutors said that up to 180,000 Kurds were killed, many of them by poison gas and mass killings.

If convicted, Saddam could get his second death penalty following the first one he got from the trial of Dujail.

On Nov. 5, Saddam and two of his senior aides were sentenced to death on crimes against humanity for Dujail case, in which 148 people were executed in the aftermath of a crackdown on the small Shiite village following a failed assassination attempt against Saddam in 1982.

The Dujail verdicts are now with an appellate court, whose final decision will come within an unspecified time. If it approves the death ruling, Saddam would be executed lawfully within 30 days of that decision.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has already said that Saddam may be hanged before the end of this year.

Source: Xinhua