Saddam back in court on genocide charges

BAGHDAD, Sep 25 (Reuters) Saddam Hussein was back in court in Baghdad today for the latest hearing in his trial for genocide against ethnic Kurds in the late 1980s.

Lawyers for the ousted Iraqi president and his six co-defendants said yesterday they would stay away from the court, partly in protest at the Iraqi government's sacking of the chief judge in the case last week.

The defence team stormed out of the last hearing last week and the chief defence lawyer said yesterday it would ''suspend attending the trial sessions in protest at the judge's behaviour''.

''The court is committing intolerable mistakes -- overtly interfering in the trial procedure and removing and replacing judges,'' Khalil al-Dulaimi told Reuters.

Saddam and his cousin Ali Hassan al-Majeed, dubbed ''Chemical Ali'', face genocide charges for what prosecutors say are the deaths of 180,000 Kurds, mainly villagers, some poisoned with gas. Five others face charges of murder and crimes against humanity; all seven could be hanged.

The defence team walked out of the last hearing, on Wednesday, as soon as the month-old trial resumed with a new judge, after the government had sacked judge Abdullah al-Amiri overnight. The government said Amiri was biased because he had said the previous week that Saddam was ''not a dictator''.

When Saddam's lawyers left the room, new chief judge Muhammed al-Ureybi ejected the ex-leader from the courtroom for protesting, and continued the trial with court-appointed lawyers and Saddam's six co-defendants.

International legal rights groups criticised the sacking of the judge, saying it would hurt the legitimacy of the outcome of the historic trial.

But prosecutors said the original judge was allowing Saddam -- permitted under Iraqi law to address his accusers directly on a daily basis -- to intimidate frightened witnesses. At one hearing he told his accusers he would ''crush their heads''.

The trial is the second Saddam has faced. A verdict in a year-old trial for crimes against humanity over the killing of 148 Shi'ites is expected next month. The first chief judge in that trial quit in protest against political interference.

REUTERS SP VC1229