Saddam Hussein turned up at his genocide trial yesterday, despite writing earlier to the chief judge and telling him he would no longer attend court sessions in protest at being repeated silenced from speaking.

Saddam and six others are on trial for the Anfal military campaign against ethnic Kurds in northern Iraq in the 1980s in which prosecutors say up to 180,000 people were killed in poison gas attacks and mass executions. In a letter handed to a defence team lawyer who saw him, the former Iraqi leader said he had been denied “clarifying the truth” over his role in Anfal, which the defence argues was a legitimate operation against Kurdish rebels siding with Iraq’s Iranian foe.

Saddam, who is awaiting an appeal against a death sentence from a separate case, was furious when the judge refused to give him an opportunity to refute prosecution allegations he swindled $10 billion of state assets.