Iraq's former president Saddam Hussein said at the court on Tuesday that he and his seven co-defendants had been on hunger strike for the past three days.

Saddam Hussein said they had been holding a hunger strike for three days to protest against the way they were treated.

The trial of Saddam Hussein and his seven co-defendants resumed on Tuesday.

The defiant Saddam stood before chief judge Raouf Rasheed Abdul Rahman and shouted slogans supporting the Iraqi insurgents against U.S.-Iraqi troops.

Saddam and his aides are facing charges over crimes against humanity, including the killing of over 140 Shiite countrymen in Dujail after a failed assassination attempt on Saddam in 1982.