BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) — Saddam Hussein and his lawyers announced a boycott of his trial Monday, citing bias and lack of security, even as the defense for lower-level figures in the trial gave their closing arguments.

The lawyers for Saddam and three of his top co-defendants said they would not attend the trial to protest the slaying last month of Khamis al-Obeidi, one of the top members of the defense team by gunmen who kidnapped him from his home in Baghdad.

Saddam notified the chief judge in a letter that he too would boycott because the court "lacks the lawful proceedings that are well established in international and Iraqi law."

"There's a deliberate attempt to convict us as a result of a malicious American desire, aided by disgusting collaborators in Iraq," Saddam wrote in the letter sent Sunday and provided to The Associated Press by his lawyers.

The move came as the trial entered its final phase, with the defense presenting its closing arguments. Two lower-level defendants, Ali Dayih and Mohammed Azawi, made their final statements before the trial adjourned until Tuesday, when more defendants will be heard.

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The boycott raises the likelihood that Saddam will not make a final statement when his turn comes, expected later in the week. If his lawyers are still boycotting, the court will appoint lawyers to make Saddam's final arguments, court spokesman Raid Juhi said.

In his letter, Saddam denounced Iraq's government as collaborators and signed the letter as "president and commander in chief of the holy fighting armed forces."

"We did not become rulers of Iraq by American political or financial support," he said. "We were not brought to power by their warplanes and tanks, but by our will and the will of our great people."

He said the collaborators "think that if they convict us of what they call 'crimes against humanity,' they will keep us out of Iraqi affairs."

Saddam and seven former members of his regime are charged with crimes against humanity for a crackdown against Shiites in the town of Dujail launched after a 1982 assassination attempt against Saddam. They are accused of arresting hundreds of people, torturing women and children and killing 148 people sentenced to death for the attack on the former Iraqi leader.

After the defense arguments, the court will adjourn for the judges to consider their verdicts, expected by mid-August. The eight face possible execution by hanging if convicted, although they can appeal.

The defense team for Saddam, Barzan Ibrahim, Taha Yassin Ramadan and Awad al-Bandar _ the case's top defendants _ said they were boycotting the trial unless a series of conditions were met, particularly better security in the wake of al-Obeidi's slaying.

Al-Obeidi, one of Saddam's lawyers, who was abducted from his Baghdad home on June 21 and found shot to death hours later on a street near the Shiite slum of Sadr City. He was the third defense lawyer to be killed since the trial began in October.

"Everyone is afraid," another defense lawyer, Najib al-Nueimi, said from Qatar. "We will not attend until our conditions are met."

He said the defense also wants a longer adjournment to give time to prepare final arguments, saying al-Obeidi's slaying distracted them from their work.

"We have all gotten threats. What do you expect us to do? Lawyers have closed down their offices and gone into hiding and taken their families to Jordan," al-Nueimi said.

At the start of Monday's session, chief judge Raouf Abdel-Rahman said he had received the defense's requests but dismissed them, saying some were out of the court's purview, others "violate the law." He did not elaborate.

Abdel-Rahman expressed his regrets over al-Obeidi's death, saying the court "strongly condemns any attack against lawyers or against any of those working in this court."

He said the court had appointed lawyers to replace those who were not present.

In a new security measure, the faces of the lawyers of Dayih and Azawi were not shown in the television broadcast of the trial as they made their arguments Monday and their voices were electronically altered _ unlike previous sessions in which the defense lawyers were openly shown.

Dayih and Azawi were the only defendants in the courtroom, and Abdel-Rahman said that was because each defendant would be called in individually for closing arguments.

The two former local Baath Party officials in Dujail have been accused of writing letters to security officials informing on Shiite families after the shooting attack on Saddam's motorcade. Some of those they allegedly informed on were imprisoned and later killed.

The prosecution has asked that Azawi be acquitted, admitting it did not have enough evidence against him, and has asked for a more lenient sentence against Dayih.

Dayih stood and denied any role in the crackdown, saying he was "feeling pain and agony to see myself accused with crimes against humanity."

"Who am I to be tried today as a senior official of the former regime? I was a simple employee and low-ranking Baath Party member," he said, repeating his claim that he was a postgraduate student in Baghdad at the time of the crackdown.

He said signatures alleged to be his on informant letters produced by the prosecution were forgeries.

Azawi also denied any role, saying, "I swear by God almighty I didn't have any problem with anyone in Dujail. ... I'm well-known man and magnanimous one."

Court officials have said they expect verdicts to be issued before a second trial of Saddam begins on Aug. 21. In that trial, Saddam and six other former members of his regime face charges of for the Anfal Campaign in the 1980s that killed an estimated 100,000 Kurds and saw thousands of Kurdish villages razed.