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The trial of Saddam Hussein has reached a turning point after this week's dramatic hearings, with prosecutors seeking to build up documentary evidence in a bid to prove that the toppled Iraqi dictator took personal revenge on a village after escaping assassination there.

The next hearing, on March 12, will likely involve "the presentation of additional evidence by the prosecution, possibly with expert witnesses," according to US diplomats close to the Iraqi High Tribunal.

Defence lawyers allege some of the prosecution's documents related to the execution of 148 Shiites from the village of Dujail where Saddam survived the 1982 murder plot are forgeries.

Two days of hearings this week saw prosecutors produce documentary evidence to link Saddam and his seven co-accused to what a US diplomat described as "a widespread and systematic attack on the citizens of Dujail" which amounts to "a crime against humanity."

Documents included death certificates signed by a prison doctor for those hanged.

Others pointed to the gruesome fate of some victims -- 46 of whom were tortured to death, 10 of whom, under age at the time of sentencing, were hanged once they were grown up, and four who were simply hanged by mistake.

Following the next hearing, the court is expected to recess for two to four weeks while the five-judge panel drafts specific charges against Saddam and his co-accused.

"This is a very important stage in the trial," said Miranda Sissons, an observer from the International Center for transitional justice.

"The charging documents will specify the level of responsibility of each of the defendants," she said, adding that "a number of legal experts are currently concerned about how all the evidence fits together" and how the prosecution intends to "show the system behind the crime."

On Wednesday, at the 14th court hearing, Saddam, who faces death by hanging if convicted, made a dramatic statement saying he personally ordered the trial of the 148 accused of plotting to kill him and signed an order to destroy their orchards.

"If putting a defendant on trial on charges of shooting at a head of state ... is considered a crime, then you have the head of state in your hands. Why are you trying other people? There was only one president," Saddam told the court.

A US diplomat close to the tribunal, who asked not to be named, suggested this was a "serious" admission of guilt "which could be used in evidence against him."

But Nehal Bhuta, an observer from the Human Rights' Watch International Justice program, argued that Saddam's statement was "more an admission of fact than an admission of guilt."

"In effect, was he was saying was 'I was acting within my legal rights' as president of Iraq" when ordering that the villagers be tried, Bhuta said.

Saddam said Wednesday he barely escaped the assassination bid when a number of men fired on his mortorcade as he drove through Dujail, north of Baghdad.

Large numbers of villagers were rounded up after the attack and the relatives of those executed, among them children as young as three-months, were deported to a desert prison camp in the south of the country. Their farms were destroyed and orchards cut down.

"If I had wanted I wouldn't have referred them (the accused villagers) to the revolutionary court. I did refer them to the revolutionary court. And they were tried according to the law," Saddam added.

In such trials, as was also the case in Nuremberg after World War II, documents are all important to prove the responsibility of the leaders, said Bhuta.

But documentary proof may also be vital because of the lack of witnesses willing to testify as to the direct implication of the accused.

A number of witnesses, after submitting initial testimony, have disappeared or refused to attend the hearings, and a former interior minister, Saadun Shaker, who was expected to be a witness for the prosecution has decided to remain silent.

Some defence lawyers alleged he was pressured into making initial confessions, while others suggested he was offered immunity in exchange for his testimony. Prosecutors on Wednesday asked that he also be charged in connection with events in Dujail.

A number of Iraqis interviewed in Baghdad on Thursday said they'd grown weary of the trial and looked forward to its end.

Among them was Hassan Abed Ali, a Shiite taxi driver.

"The trial has been going on for months. It's time to end it. Saddam has admitted responsibility. The others (defendants) are just puppets," he said.

(Chinadaily.com via agencies March 3, 2006)