A thinner but combative Saddam Hussein returned to court Wednesday for the first time since his hunger strike and hospitalization, complaining he had been forced to attend the proceedings and asking to be executed by firing squad if the court sentences him to death.

"I was brought against my will directly from the hospital," Saddam told the chief judge. "The Americans insisted that I come against my will. This is not fair."

He asked the court to execute him by firing squad - "not by hanging as a common criminal" - if it convicts him of all charges and sentences him to death.

Former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein shouts during his trial in the US-controlled Green Zone in Baghdad, Iraq Wednesday July 26, 2006. [AP]

"I ask you being an Iraqi person that if you reach a verdict of death, execution, remember that I am a military man and should be killed by firing squad," he said.

Chief Judge Raouf Abdel-Rahman reminded Saddam that the trial was still under way and that the court had not reached a verdict. Executions in Iraq are normally by hanging.

Saddam and seven co-defendants have been on trial since Oct. 19 in the killing and torture of Shiites in Dujail following a 1982 assassination attempt against him there. The prosecution has asked for the death penalty for Saddam and two of the seven others.

As the session began Wednesday, the ousted president was allowed to make a statement, beginning with a verse from the Quran, in which he challenged the validity and impartiality of the court. He then repeated a theme he has voiced since the start of the trial - that the panel is an illegal instrument of the American occupation.

As he argued with the chief judge, Saddam raised his hands, pointed his finger and said: "Not even 1,000 people like you can terrify me."

"The invaders only understand the language of the gun," Saddam said. "I am in prison but the knights outside will liberate the country."

Saddam last attended the proceedings on June 19 when chief prosecutor Jaafar al-Moussawi asked the court to impose the death penalty on the former ruler for his role in the deaths of Shiite Muslims in Dujail following a 1982 assassination attempt against him.

Page:

1

2