Iraqi Judge Accused of Saddam Bias

The chief prosecutor in Saddam Hussein's trial has accused the presiding judge of bias towards the former Iraqi dictator and demanded that he step down from the bench.

Munqith al-Faroon said the judge, Abdullah al-Amiri, allowed Saddam to berate witnesses in court and make political statements from the defendant's box.

"You allowed this court to become a political podium for the defendants," he said.

"For instance yesterday, instead of taking legal action (against Saddam), you asked his permission to talk.

"The action of the court leans toward the defendants."

He also said that Saddam had treated witnesses with disrespect.

Another Kurdish lawyer backed the comments. "His statements are illegal and must be stopped," said the lawyer, who was not named in court.

But Judge Amiri cited the example of a seventh-century follower of Muhammad to demonstrate that judges should treat all parties to a court action equally.

The remarks followed a typically chaotic hearing yesterday in which Saddam exchanged angry comments with a prosecution witness and Mr Faroon threatened to walk out, claiming he was not being given an opportunity to speak.

At one point in yesterday's hearing Saddam flew into a rage after Kurdish rebels were described as "freedom fighters" by a prosecution lawyer. He described prosecution witnesses as "agents of Iran and Zionism", and vowed to "crush [their] heads".

Kurdish witness Abdul Ghafour, who fled to Iran after Iraqi troops shelled his village in 1988 greeted the toppled leader with sarcasm: "Congratulations, Saddam Hussein. You are now in a cage." Saddam replied to the judge: "When you cage a lion, any coward can poke a stick at him."

This week's hearings have concerned the 1986-89 Anfal campaign in Iraqi Kurdistan, in which an estimated 180,000 people were killed.

Witnesses yesterday described mass graves where the bodies of relatives killed during the campaign were recently discovered, and one told of being caught in a chemical weapons attack in 1988.

The notorious Halabja poison gas attack was part of the Anfal campaign, although charges relating to that attack do not form part of the current trial.

Most of the hearings against Saddam since he first appeared in court last year have focused on a different incident; the 1982 Dujail campaign in which 150 residents of the Shia town were executed following an assassination attempt against the dictator. A verdict in the case is expected next month.

In January, the presiding judge in the Dujail trial, Rizgar Amin, resigned from the court, citing public and political criticism that he had allowed Saddam to turn the court into a platform to rehearse his political views.

Mr Amin privately explained at the time that his tolerance of Saddam's outbursts had been designed to draw him out of his obstructionist behaviour and present an example of even-handed justice.

Defence lawyers in the Dujail trial alleged that the court was biased towards the prosecution in failing to provide adequate protection for the defence team. Four of Saddam's defence lawyers have been killed in suspected targeted killings and his defence team boycotted the court for the closing statements of the Dujail trial in July.