Judge castigates sleeping lawyer in Saddam's trial

BAGHDAD, Sep 19 (Reuters) The chief judge in Saddam Hussein's genocide trial castigated a defence lawyer for falling asleep during today's proceedings, as a witness was recounting a gas attack.

Banging his hammer, an angry Abdullah al-Amiri brusquely interrupted an ethnic Kurd recounting a gas attack in his village in northern Iraq in 1988 to berate one of the lawyers for Saddam and his six other co-accused.

''It appears you're falling asleep!'' the judge said.

''Who me? No, no. I'm just tired like everyone else here. I wasn't asleep. I was listening on behalf of my client,'' said lawyer Badea Arif, appearing somewhat embarrassed.

More than 20 witnesses have testified in the case of Saddam's ''Anfal'' campaign against ethnic Kurds since the trial began last month. Most of the witnesses are Kurdish villagers, whose testimony is translated into Arabic from Kurdish and repeated for the record by the judge, a slow process.

Once dubbed the ''trials of the century,'' the hearings no longer mesmerise Iraqis as they did in the initial days, when there was global coverage of the toppled leader in the dock.

Saddam, 69, is awaiting verdict next month for a separate case involving the killing of Shi'ites in the 1980s after a trial that began a year ago and ran for nine months. Officials close to the court say he could face up to a dozen more cases.

REUTERS DKA PM2000