Saddam tells judge will stop attending hearings

AMMAN, Dec 5 (Reuters) Saddam Hussein wrote to the judge in the ethnic Kurdish genocide trial to tell him he would no longer attend court sessions to protest against being repeatedly silenced from speaking, his chief lawyer said today.

In the letter which was handed to a defence team lawyer who saw him yesterday, the former Iraqi leader said he and his defence team had been denied ''clarifying the truth'' over his role in a military campaign that killed up to 180,000 people.

Saddam, who is awaiting an appeal against a death sentence from a separate case for the killing of Shi'ite villagers in the 1980s, was furious when the judge refused to give him an opportunity to refute prosecution allegations he swindled 10 billion dollars of state assets.

''When I tried to clarify what happened by raising my hand three times I was not given a chance,'' Saddam wrote in the handwritten letter released by his lawyers.

Chief defence counsel Khalil Dulaimi said Saddam's refusal to attend any future hearings reflected the former leader's firm belief he had been denied the right to properly defend himself.

''So I tell you I cannot take these continued insults from you and others ... and I ask you to relieve me from attending the sessions of this new farce and you can do whatever you want,'' Saddam said in the letter.

The Anfal trial opened in a Baghdad courtroom on August 21 and has heard more than 70 witnesses in 27 hearings, most of whom have described the campaign that ravaged Kurdistan.

Prosecutors are expected to present documents tomorrow linking Saddam to the killing of Kurds, court officials said.

Reuters SRS VP0042