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Butcher of Baghdad on Hunger Strike

Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, and three of his former top officials, are protesting the judge overseeing their trial by engaging in a hunger strike and wearing just long underwear in the courtroom. Chief judge Raouf Abdel-Rahman, took over for the previous judge and, has worked to impose order in a court where outbursts and arguments are the norm and have frequently overshadowed the testimony.

Earlier this week Hussein was forced into the courtroom against his will, in what many see as an effort to bring some sanity and order to a currently chaotic process - also, many noted, to put Saddam in his place. Judge Raid Juhi is not denying the claims that the defendants were refusing food.

Juhi meanwhile says, "This is an administrative problem that the court is working to verify and it will work also to solve it... with the responsible parties in the custodial authorities.? Hussein?s half-brother and co-defendant, Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, was seen on courtroom footage wearing long underwear for the second day in a row to demonstrate his rejection of the court and says he is on a hunger strike too.