BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) — Saddam Hussein and his defense team complained about unfairness Tuesday in his trial on crimes against humanity, demanding equal time to present their case and saying one of their witnesses had been killed and others wouldn't testify because they were wanted by authorities.

The defense did not identify the slain witness or give any other details. But it said his death illustrated the difficulty of defending Saddam and seven former members of his regime against charges including killing and torture in a crackdown on Shiites prompted by an assassination attempt against Saddam in the town of Dujail in 1982.

"The defense is not free to present its witnesses the way the prosecution is," one of the defense lawyers told chief judge Raouf Abdel-Rahman.

The lawyer, among those on the team whose names have not been made public for security reasons, said the defense was further limited because some potential witnesses were wanted by the U.S. military or Iraqi government and won't appear. He did not elaborate.

Meanwhile, a witness alleged that some victims the defendants are accused of killing are still alive.

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The defense complaints came after Abdel-Rahman chided Saddam's team for trying to expand its witness list. The judge has shown increasing impatience with a string of witnesses with no direct connection to the Dujail case.

"The key is not the number of witnesses, but the quality of their testimony," he said. "That's in your interest. If you come with 100 witnesses but they aren't effective for your defense ... the court won't take it," he said.

Abdel-Rahman also refused a defense request to show DVDs as evidence Tuesday, telling the lawyers to make a written request.

Saddam interjected that Abdel-Rahman should give the defense as much time as the prosecution.

"I would insist not to come here if I did not respect the judicial system," Saddam told the judge. "My respect for the judicial system is the reason behind accepting my colleagues to defend me and to present my case before Iraqis and public opinion.

"The prosecution presented all his witnesses one by one. We have nothing here, just talk, but when even talk is forbidden then we enter an imbalance," he said. "To attain balance we have to be given the same opportunity to the defense witnesses."

U.S. and Iraqi leaders hope a fair trial with an effective defense could help Iraq's deeply divided Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds put the atrocities of Saddam's regime behind them.

Two defense lawyers were killed early in the trial, and on Monday a defense attorney accused a spectator of belonging to a Shiite militia that has threatened lawyers. The judge ejected the spectator from the court.

The defense has been presenting its case for the past month in the seven-month-old trial.

One of the defense witnesses testified Tuesday that nearly two dozen of the 148 Shiites who were sentenced to death were still alive. The prosecution has said all 148 were killed, either executed by hanging or tortured to death even before their sentencing.

"Around 23 of those who were mentioned among the 148 are still alive, and I know most of them," the witness, who claimed to live in Dujail, said from behind a curtain to protect his anonymity. "I've eaten with them, I've met them. ... I can take the chief prosecutor to Dujail and have lunch with them."

He gave Abdel-Rahman the names of six of those he claimed were still alive, but refused to give more, saying he feared reprisals from their tribes.

"If the witness' testimony is correct ... the case should be reviewed," one of the defense lawyers said, arguing that the testimony cast a key part of the prosecution's case into doubt.

But chief prosecutor Jaafar al-Moussawi tried to discredit the witness, saying records showed that he was not a Dujail resident and that some of the names he gave were not on the list of those sentenced to death.

Saddam stood and insisted the man's claims should be checked. "Your honor, you've come upon a serious issue that needs a comprehensive study."

The judge promised to investigate and ordered the witness to remain in protective custody to help in the inquiry.

Abdel-Rahman has become exasperated by the defense's practice of calling witnesses without direct knowledge of the events in question. The defense has called employees of the Revolutionary Court that sentenced 148 Shiites to death, for example. Each has insisted the court was a fair one -- but none was involved in the Dujail trial.

The anonymous witness said that three witnesses who testified for the prosecution earlier in the trial had boasted of participating in the assassination attempt on Saddam. The defense witness said he heard some of those boasts at a July 8, 2004, ceremony in Dujail commemorating the attack. He said that al-Moussawi had attended the ceremony.

The defense said that one of the DVDs it wants to play for the court is a video showing al-Moussawi at the ceremony. That, the defense alleged, showed al-Moussawi knew the three witnesses were involved in the attack on Saddam.

One of the top co-defendants, former intelligence chief Barzan Ibrahim, stood and flashed a victory sign, shouting, "The truth has arisen! Down with lies! Long live Iraq!"

Abdel-Rahman threatened to close the next trial session to the public. U.S. officials observing the court later said the session would be open. The trial was adjourned until Wednesday.