Saddam and aides ejected from genocide trial

BAGHDAD, Sep 26 (Reuters) Saddam Hussein was ejected from his genocide trial for a third consecutive time today as chaos reigned following the sacking of the chief judge last week.

International legal rights groups have warned that the sacking of the former chief judge, removed by the government last week for saying Saddam was ''not a dictator'' could hurt the historic trial's credibility.

New chief judge Mohammed al-Ureybi, who had thrown Saddam out of the two previous hearings he has chaired in the past week, opened today's hearing with a lecture to Saddam to behave.

He let him read a 20-minute statement, with microphones off so those in the glass-enclosed press gallery could not hear.

But after listening to two Kurdish witnesses, Saddam again began to argue and the judge lost his patience.

''You are a defendant and I'm a judge,'' Ureybi said. ''Shut up, no-one talk ... The court has decided to eject Saddam Hussein from court.'' As Saddam left, smiling, his six co-defendants -- top commanders under Saddam -- stood and tried to follow him out, demanding they leave too. The judge shouted back: ''Get Saddam out and put the others back in their seats.'' Several co-defendants started shouting and pointing fingers at the judge. Ureybi ejected one, former defence minister Sultan Hashim, before ordering a recess.

When the hearing resumed, none of the defendants was present. No explanation was given for their absence.

Unusually, the sound was left on for television broadcasts, allowing all Iraqis to watch and listen during several minutes of courtroom pandemonium.

The defence lawyers have been boycotting the trial since the new chief judge took over last week, so the defendants were represented only by court-appointed back-up lawyers.

PREVIOUS JUDGE FIRED Although Saddam was also expelled from the courtroom during the last two hearings, Tuesday was the first time that the genocide trial proceeded without any of the defendants in court.

Saddam and the other six could face hanging over the deaths of an estimated 180,000 Kurdish villagers in 1988, including thousands killed by poison gas.

He and his cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid -- dubbed ''Chemical Ali'' by Iraqis -- face genocide charges. Five others face charges of mass murder and crimes against humanity.

International legal rights groups have said the sacking of the judge could hurt the legitimacy of the trial. But prosecutors said Amiri had been too lenient, allowing Saddam to threaten witnesses. He told accusers earlier this month in court that he would ''crush their heads''.

The trial has featured moving testimony from villagers recounting their suffering during the Anfal -- ''Spoils of War'' -- campaign, when Saddam's forces attacked Kurds he accused of helping Iran during the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s.

Before Saddam was ejected today, the court heard from Aasi Mustafa Ahmed, a villager in his 50s who said he had been an Iraqi army conscript and prisoner of war in Iran. When he returned home in 1990 he found his house destroyed and his wife and four children missing, never to be seen again.

Asked if he sought compensation, he said: ''If you gave me the whole world, it wouldn't make up for one of my children's fingernails.'' A verdict is due next month in an earlier trial which began last October, over the deaths of 148 Shi'ite men from the town of Dujail. The first chief judge in that trial quit, citing political interference, but was not sacked as in the Anfal case.

REUTERS AB BS1631