Saddam Hussein has returned to court to face charges of genocide against Iraq's Kurds, two days after another panel sentenced him to death for crimes against humanity.

Saddam, wearing a black suit and white shirt with a handkerchief, entered the court and took his seat quietly among the other six defendants on Tuesday.

The seven men are charged with carrying out a genocide against Iraq's Kurds during the Anfal military campaign of the late 1980s.

Once the defendants had arrived, the chief judge then convened the session and called the first witness, Qahar Khalil Mohammed.

On Sunday, another five-judge panel convicted Saddam of ordering the death of nearly 150 Shia Muslims after a 1982 assassination attempt against him in the town of Dujail.

He and two others were sentenced to death by hanging. Four co-defendants received lesser sentences and one was acquitted.

The Dujail case is subject to appeal, and the Anfal genocide trial will continue while the appeal is under way.

On Monday, the chief prosecutor said the nine-judge appeals panel would rule on Saddam's appeal against his death sentence by mid-January.

That could set in motion a possible execution by mid-February.

Photo Caption

Saddam Hussein