BAGHDAD, Iraq — Saddam Hussein's lawyers accused a prosecution witness of perjury today and demanded the 7-month-old trial be halted to allow an investigation into all testimony against the former Iraqi leader and his co-defendants.

The accusation came after the defense played a DVD, which it claimed showed that prosecution witness Ali al-Haidari contradicted the testimony he gave in December about a crackdown against Shiites launched by Saddam's regime following an attack on the then-Iraqi leader in 1982 in Dujail.

Al-Haidari testified in December that he was arrested at age 14 in the Dujail sweep and was tortured with electrical shocks and beatings.

One of the videos, shown in court today, included footage of his testimony in which he insisted there was no shooting attack on Saddam in Dujail on July 8, 1982 — only celebratory shooting to mark the former Iraqi leader's visit.

The DVD then showed al-Haidari addressing a 2004 ceremony in Dujail and praising the attack on Saddam as an attempt by "sons of Dujail ... to kill the greatest tyrant in modern history."

"He's saying something totally different in this tape, contradicting his testimony," defense lawyer Ziyad al-Najdawi told the court. "This is considered a crime of perjury, and we ask that he be investigated for perjury."

"Now that it's been proven that the second witness has given an untrue testimony, we ask that the trial proceedings be stopped to allow for an investigation into the veracity of the other prosecution testimony," he said.

Chief prosecutor Jaafar al-Moussawi said al-Haidari's speech at the ceremony was irrelevant.