Saddam trial judge plans to quit: source

By Twana Osman

SULAIMANIYA, Iraq (Reuters) – The chief judge in the trial
of Saddam Hussein plans to step down, a source close to the
judge told Reuters on Friday, in a development that could throw
an already turbulent process into further disarray.

“He wants to withdraw,” the source said of Kurdish judge
Rizgar Amin, who is due to preside over the next sitting of the
court on January 24.

“He will oversee the next sitting and then announce his
reasons for withdrawing,” the source said.

The source declined to explain why the judge, based in the
Kurdish city of Sulaimaniya, wanted to pull out of a trial
which has made his face one of the best known in Iraq after
several days of live television coverage.

All he would say was: “It is too difficult.”

The killings of two defense lawyers for some of Saddam’s
seven co-accused in the trial for crimes against humanity had
already highlighted the difficulties of a legal process in a
country mired in a virtual civil war.

Another of the panel of five judges pulled out earlier in
the trial, which opened on October 19 in a heavily fortified
courtroom in Baghdad. He withdrew because he discovered he was
related to an alleged victim of one defendant and was replaced.

Initially only Amin, whose dry wit marked the early days of
the trial, was seen on camera, although one of the other five
judges has since been identified.

Critics have questioned, however, why Amin has allowed the
former president and other defendants to speak at great length.