Saddam, co-defendants ejected from genocide trial

BAGHDAD, Sep 26 (Reuters) Saddam Hussein was ejected from his genocide trial for the third day running today, and this time his six co-defendants were all sent out after him, as chaos reigned after last week's sacking of the chief judge.

Iraqis were treated to the rare televised spectacle of their former rulers shouting and gesturing as new chief judge Mohammed al-Ureybi failed to silence the defendants.

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

Ureybi, who had thrown Saddam out of both previous hearings he chaired since taking over last 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. Unusually, the sound was left on for television broadcasts, allowing all Iraqis to watch and listen during several minutes of courtroom pandemonium.

Ureybi ejected one co-defendant, ordered a recess and switched off the sound. A source close to the court said he then ejected the others. When the hearing resumed, it was the first time the trial proceeded with none of the defendants in court.

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.

Saddam and the six others 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 damage the legitimacy of the trial, considered an historic event especially among Iraqi Kurds.

But prosecutors said he had been too lenient, allowing Saddam to threaten fearful 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.'' At the end of the day's hearings, Ureybi adjourned the trial until October 9, giving the defendants time to communicate with their lawyers or find new ones.

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