Saddam gets state lawyers as defence snubs trial

BAGHDAD, Sep 25 (Reuters) Saddam Hussein was back in court in Baghdad today, five days after a new chief judge ejected him from his genocide trial, but the ousted president's lawyers boycotted the proceedings.

Eight court-appointed lawyers stood in for the defence team, which said it was suspending its appearances in protest against the sacking last week by the Iraqi government of the previous chief judge. The case concerns the Anfal -- or Spoils of War -- offensive by Iraqi forces in the Kurdish north in 1988.

Saddam sat through the first hour without incident, although one of his six co-accused, Sultan Hashim, was ordered to sit and be silent by new chief judge Mohammed al-Ureybi after the former defence minister stood to disown the public defender.

''I don't acknowledge this attorney and he does not represent me,'' Hashim said after the lawyer had interjected on his behalf to question a Kurdish witness who testified to spending time in harsh conditions in prison after surviving a poison gas attack.

At the last hearing on Wednesday, Ureybi ordered Saddam, 69, from the court after he launched one of his now familiar angry speeches.

Today, proceedings got off to a quieter start.

Mohammed Rasul Mustafa, a Kurdish man in his 70s wearing a traditional scarf headdress, said he watched aircraft bomb a nearby village, giving off clouds that smelled of apples and gave him breathing difficulties. He was later imprisoned and last saw his wife and five children in jail.

He testified to seeing guards beat a man to death and said 400 to 500 other Kurds died while he was imprisoned.

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

The defence team stormed out of Wednesday's hearing 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, known as ''Chemical Ali'', face genocide charges for what prosecutors say are the deaths of 180,000 Kurds, some gassed. Five others face charges of murder and crimes against humanity. All seven could hang.

The defence team walked out of the last hearing 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''.

International legal rights groups criticised the sacking of the judge, saying it would hurt the legitimacy of the outcome of the historic trial, organised under US supervision. Three defence counsel in another case have been killed.

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 SSC1338