Standing trial: Saddam Hussein

This, possibly the most discussed trial of the years to come, began at a secret Green Zone location under extreme US military-imposed security measures.

Saddam's lawyer said yesterday that he would ask for a three-month adjournment at his client's trial for the 1982 massacre, and challenge the court's competence to hear the case.

The trial is being presided over by five judges, whose identities have been kept secret. It is being held at a specially-built courtroom.

The court will hear evidence that he rounded up wives and children of the men whose killing he ordered and kept them in a desert camp for years.

An Iraqi woman carries pictures of her sons who were executed in 1982 by security forces of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein in the town of al-Dujail, north of Baghdad.

Photographs: AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP/Getty Images