BAGHDAD, Iraq — A noticeably calmer Saddam Hussein sat quietly in his defendant's chair at the resumption of his trial today, two weeks after he called the court "unjust" and boycotted a session. When the judge refused to let him take a break to pray, the former leader closed his eyes and appeared to pray from his seat.

Saddam and seven co-defendants are on trial in the deaths of more than 140 Shiite Muslims following a 1982 assassination attempt against him in the town of Dujail, north of Baghdad.

During previous sessions, Saddam has been defiant and combative at times, often trying to dominate the courtroom. He and his half brother Barazan Ibrahim, who was head of the Iraqi intelligence during the Dujail incident, have used the procedures to protest their own conditions in detention.

The deposed president had refused to attend the previous session on Dec. 7. "I will not come to an unjust court! Go to hell!" he said in an outburst in court the day before.

But today, his behavior was calmer, and he appeared clean-shaven and in fresh clothes, wearing a dark suit but no tie. Previously during the trial, Saddam has appeared disheveled and has complained about being held in unsanitary conditions.

The prosecution's first witness today was a man who testified about killings and torture in Dujail after the attempt to assassinate Saddam. Ali Hassan Mohammed al-Haidari, who was 14 years old in 1982, started off by quoting from the Quran, the Islamic holy book, about how evil was coming and would be defeated.

As al-Haidari turned to Saddam, who finished the phrase with him, the judge, in an apparent early bid to take control of a courtroom that has often been unruly, told the witness to address the court and not Saddam directly.

At another point when the witness referred to Saddam by name, the former leader interrupted, saying "Saddam who?" implying the proper respect hadn't been shown. The judge asked the witness whom he meant, and the witness restated: "I mean the former Iraqi president."

Al-Haidari, whose brother was the first witness at Saddam's trial, testified that seven of his brothers were executed by Saddam's regime and so far their bodies have not been found.

The court — which held its first session Oct. 19 — has now heard from 10 witnesses, who often gave emotional testimonies of random arrests, hunger and beatings while in custody and torture in detention.

Some Iraqi government officials have said they hope the trial of Saddam will help heal the wounds of his regime's victims and bring Iraqis closer together.

But the trial has also highlighted divisions between Iraq's various ethnic and sectarian groups, with many Sunni Arabs expressing sympathy with the former president and even nostalgia for his era.

By contrast, many Shiites and Kurds gloated over seeing the once powerful Saddam reduced to a defendant.