Saddam trial judge quits

2005-12-04 19:22

Baghdad - One of the five judges in the Saddam Hussein trial has stepped down after learning that one of the defendants may have been involved in the execution of his brother, a court official said on Sunday.

Raid Juhi told The Associated Press that the judge removed himself last week and has been replaced in time for Monday's hearing.

Juhi declined to give further details or identify the defendant involved.

Names of both judges were not released since security regulations prohibit the publication of the identities of all tribunal members except the chief judge, Rizgar Mohammed Amin.

The Monday session will be on the third so far since the proceedings opened on October 19.

Amin granted a week's adjournment on November 28 so that one of Saddam's seven co-defendants, former vice-president Taha Yassin Ramadan, could find a replacement for his court-appointed lawyer.

All eight defendants are charged with ordering the killing of more than 140 people from the mainly Shiite town of Dujail north of Baghdad after an attempt on Saddam's life there in 1982.

Security issues

If convicted, the eight could face the death penalty.

The trial has been dogged by security issues since the outset.

Two defence lawyers have been assassinated since the opening session and a third has fled the country.

On Sunday, the government's national security adviser said authorities had uncovered a plot by a Sunni Arab insurgent group to attack Saddam's trial when it holds its third hearing on Monday.

On Monday, according to a US official close to the proceedings, the court will begin hearing the testimony of 10 complainants of whom six have agreed to have their identity revealed, but not appear in television footage shown in and outside Iraq.

Another two have agreed to have their identities disclosed and appear in footage, while another two will only testify from behind a screen in the courtroom, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.

- AP