The doe-eyed faces of 28 Iraqi children allegedly executed on Saddam Hussein’s orders clashed with photographs of detainees abused at Abu Ghraib as the former Iraqi president’ trial on Wednesday, and both sides played to the world’s cameras.

The sparring by Saddam, his defence team, prosecutors and the judge, which ranged well beyond the scope of the case, marked another day in which drama for a televised audience appeared to trump jurisprudence at the trial.

Saddam presented a spirited though rambling defence of his orders to execute Shi’ite Muslims from the village of Dujayl, and questioned the court’s legitimacy. He and seven co-defendants could face the death penalty on charges of crimes against humanity in the case, which involves the execution, detention, torture and banishment of hundreds from Dujayl, allegedly in retribution for an attempt on Saddam’s life in 1982.

Prosecutors hit Saddam with striking images: a videotape of the young dictator vowing to kill thousands of his enemies, years before the Dujayl massacre, and photographs of the 28 juveniles, one allegedly as young as 12, who were among those executed.

The defense team, which includes Lebanese and Egyptian legal consultants, played to anger in the Arab world by attempting to show abuses committed during the US military occupation—a move that got defense attorney Bushra Khalil tossed from the courtroom and threatened with a contempt charge. ‘‘It was like a battlefront,’’ Khalil said. ‘‘It was full of suspense and surprises.’’

With a flood of news releases and media appearances, prosecutors on Wednesday earlier formally indicted Saddam on genocide charges related to the Anfal campaign, a series of attacks in the late 1980s that killed as many as 100,000 Kurds with chemical and conventional weapons, and pulverised ancient mountain villages.

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