Saddam's former judge heads for dock himself

SULAIMANIYA, Iraq, July 8 (Reuters) The man who first sat in judgment on Saddam Hussein may soon be back in court -- as a defendant.

Six other Iraqi judges filed a defamation suit today against Rizgar Amin, the Kurdish judge who resigned after presiding over the first two months of the former president's trial in Baghdad last year.

One of the plaintiffs told Reuters Amin had damaged the criminal court system in the region by questioning the abilities of local judges in comments to a newspaper in his home city of Sulaimaniya.

But Amin, whose quiet smile and verbal jousts with Saddam briefly filled the world's television screens, was unfazed: ''I will go to trial and I will defend my opinions,'' he told Reuters.

REUTERS SRS RK2009