Lawyers for the former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein will attend the trial set on Nov. 28 after they retracted a boycott threat following two assassinations of their counterparts, a spokesman for the defense team said on Thursday.

Issam Ghazawi said all lawyers of Saddam would appear on the court on Monday in order to "serve justice". The decision was made although the defense team didn't receive any security guarantee, Ghazawi said, adding that the lawyers will not leave the former president alone, neither will they allow the court to appoint other lawyers to represent him.

Security concerns were raised after two lawyers of the Amman-based defense team was killed, which sent other lawyers scrambling to seek security guarantees.

Adel Muhammed Abbas was killed and Thamir Hmoud Hadi wounded on Nov. 8 when unidentified gunmen opened fire at their car in al-Adil district in western Baghdad.

Both Abbas and Hadi were on the team defending Saddam's half-brother Barzan Ibrahim and former vice president Taha Yassin Ramadan.

On Oct. 20, Saadoun al-Janabi, lawyer for Saddam's codefendant Awad al-Bander who was head of the Revolutionary Court under Saddam's regime, was abducted by masked gunmen in his office in Baghdad's eastern Shaab district.

A few hours later, Janabi was found shot dead in northern Baghdad's Ur district.

The kidnapping came one day after trials started for Saddam and his seven codefendants for killing 148 Shiite villagers in Dujailin 1982 after Saddam survived an assassination attempt. All defendants pleaded not guilty and the trial is due to resume on Nov. 28.