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Colleagues Say Saddam Judge Will Remain

Associated Press
Published | Updated

BAGHDAD, Iraq – The chief judge overseeing the Saddam Hussein trial has no plans to step down, and media reports suggesting that he will are "baseless," another judge on the Saddam tribunal said Saturday.

Rizgar Mohammed Amin, the presiding judge of a five-judge tribunal overseeing the Saddam case, has no plans to step down before the completion of the trial, two judges told The Associated Press Saturday.

The news reports cited an anonymous source close to the judge as saying he would hear one more session of the trial and then resign.

One of the judges who spoke to AP sits with Amin on the five-judge panel hearing the Saddam trial. The former leader is being tried on mass murder charges for killings in Dujail in 1982 in retaliation for an assassination attempt.

The second judge is on the committee that will likely hear the next case against Saddam concerning the Anfal Offensive that killed some 180,000 Kurds. Both judges spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

The judge on the committee studying the Anfal case told AP that Amin wasn't likely to serve for that trial because a five-judge panel has already been selected and is studying the case.

The trial against Saddam for the Dujail killings began in October and is scheduled to resume Jan. 24.

Amin is a Kurd who before the Saddam trial was virtually unknown outside his home region. He heads the panel of five judges who are both hearing the Saddam case and will render a verdict in the trial.

The names of the other four judges have not been released, and only three have allowed their faces to be shown by courtroom television cameras.

Amin has been criticized for allowing Saddam to grandstand at the trial. U.S. Senate Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter, a Republican from Pennsylvania, met with Amin in late December and told him to take stronger control of the proceeding.

Saddam has often grabbed the spotlight during his trial. He has railed at the judge, refused to show up at one session, claimed he was tortured and openly prayed in court when the judge would not allow a recess.