The Hague, Netherlands ? Saddam Hussein’s lawyers face major challenges from the United States and Iraq to their demand to move his trial to another country after two of their colleagues were killed.

Saddam’s attorneys have argued all along that the only fair trial would be one held in a special international court outside Iraq. Now about 1,100 lawyers have withdrawn from his defense team, citing inadequate protection for themselves and their families.

The boycott threatens to paralyze the trial and undermine its legitimacy, dealing a blow to the Bush administration and the government in Baghdad, which have insisted Saddam face justice in his homeland before his own people.

“There is no way you can have a trial in a country where there is absolutely no authority. That is the situation in Baghdad today,” Abdel-Haq Alani, a London-based lawyer who is a leading member of the defense team, told The Associated Press by phone.

In their statement, the lawyers didn’t say whether Saddam’s chief Iraqi attorney, Khalil al-Dulaimi, was among those who withdrew. But they said other members of the team will continue their duties in Baghdad under “dangerous circumstances.” Al-Dulaimi has suggested that defense lawyers would not show up for the next session of the special tribunal, set for later this month.

Raid Juhi, one of the judges, said the withdrawals “will not affect the work of the court,” adding that the Iraqi High Tribunal would appoint a new team if defense lawyers fail to appear. But he conceded that changing lawyers could result in delays because the new team would presumably need time to prepare its case.

Alani warned that Saddam would reject a court-appointed lawyer, in which case he said the trial would degenerate into a “total farce.”

“The trial would proceed in the absence of the defendant because the defendant would refuse to cooperate. They might as well sentence them without a trial,” he said.

Such a situation arose at the trial of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, who is defending himself against war crimes charges before a U.N. tribunal at The Hague.

Last year the court appointed a lawyer to defend Milosevic but he refused to cooperate, as did most of his witnesses, and the trial ground to a halt. Ultimately the court-appointed lawyer quit, saying trying to defend a hostile client was impossible.

Saddam and seven co-defendants are on trial for the 1982 deaths of 148 Shiite Muslims. Proceedings began Oct. 19 and are set to resume Nov. 28. If convicted, they could be executed by hanging.