The trial of the former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and his six codefendants on genocide charges against Iraqi Kurdish minority in 1980s resumed in a Baghdad court on Thursday.

Saddam and 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.

On Wednesday's session, Chief Judge Muhammad Ureibi ordered the defense lawyer Badie Aref, who is defending Farhan al-Jubouri, the former head of military intelligence, be ejected and briefly arrested for "insulting the court."

Aref was released before long after the judge said he "wanted the sessions to continue normally."

The court then heard testimonies of two expert witnesses against the accused.

Physician Asfandiar Shukri, a Kurdish-U.S. citizen, said in a series of examinations of Kurdish refugees near the Turkish border, he had determined that mustard gas was used on them in 1988.

Another American expert Douglas Scot said he had examined cartridges used in killing the victims in Iraq's Dohuk province and found that an execution squad conducted the mass killing.

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

Source: Xinhua