20 septembre 2006 <br /><br />New judge ousts Saddam from court <br /><br />Wednesday 20 September 2006, 11:58 GMT The new chief judge in the genocide trial of Saddam Hussein has ordered the former Iraqi leader out of court after he protested at his appointment. <br />Muhammad al-Uraiybi, a Shia who had served as deputy presiding judge, took over as new chief judge after his predecessor Abdullah al-Amiri was sacked by the Iraqi government on Tuesday. <br />Al-Uraiybi ordered Saddam removed from the high-security Baghdad court on Wednesday morning when the former leader complained about his appointment. <br />Guards escorted Saddam out, and all defence lawyers also walked out. <br />Escalating argument <br />Defence lawyer Wadud Fawzi, reading a statement on behalf of the defence team to the court, said: "We don't expect from this court established under the occupation authorities to be fair, so we decided to withdraw from this trial. <br />"The decision to sack the judge at the orders of the government shows that this trial lacks the standards of a fair trial." <br />Al-Uraiybi responded, saying replacing the chief judge was an "administrative matter." <br />When the lawyers protested, the judge said the court would appoint a new counsel. <br />Saddam said he wanted his lawyers to stay and protested against a court-appointed counsel. <br />"This is our personal right," Saddam shouted about the defence choosing its counsel as he pointed his finger at the judge and pounded his fist on the podium. <br />"You must deal with us as the law dictates." <br />Al-Uraiybi asked him to stop talking, but Saddam refused, prompting the judge to order him out of the courtroom. <br />The deposed leader told the judge: "Your father was in the security and he went on working as a sergeant in the security [forces] until the fall of Baghdad (a reference to the 2003 US-led war that toppled Saddam )." <br />Al-Uraiybi shouted in response: "I challenge you in front of the public if this is the case." <br />Black from burns <br />The judge then resumed the session, calling in an elderly Kurdish witness to take the stand. <br />Ismat Abd al-Qadir, 74, recalled the March 1987 attack on her northern village, Sowsinan, which she said was "completely burned down" by Iraqi jet fighters that allegedly used chemical weapons against residents. <br />She said: "We knew it was a chemical attack because after the warplanes bombarded the village, something smelled like rotten apples. I still have traces of the chemical weapon [attack] on my hands." <br />Ismat said she had had eye surgery and suffered from a chronic cough because of the effect of the chemicals. <br />She said: "Saddam burnt everything I had. I want to complain against Saddam and Ali al-Majid who bombarded our area with chemical weapons. I demand compensation. I lost both of my houses and all my possessions." <br />Another witness, shepherd Ahmad Qadir, 39, also testified that his village, Goushti, was hit with chemicals in March 1988. <br />Recalling that he was near the village when the chemicals struck, he said: "I saw heavy smoke coming." <br />On returning to the village he said he also detected a rotten apple smell. <br />He recalled losing 12 family members, including two sisters, their husbands and children, in the attack that he said turned their bodies and faces "black from burns." <br />"The warplanes hovered over the region and dropped balloons, apparently full of chemical weapons. Then missiles followed. A couple of them fell near my place. I saw headless bodies and parts of bodies, like arms and legs." <br />Gruesome accounts <br />Another witness, Sadoon Khider Gader, also gave a gruesome account of how dogs were set loose on prisoners killed in detention centres. <br />"They [the prisoners] were badly treated and those who died were carried by their mates outside" the detention centre and buried, said Gader, who lost his two sons. "We saw dogs eating them [the corpses] through the windows." <br />Saddam has justified his government's repression of the Kurds of northern Iraq as counter-insurgency measures. Kurdish rebels fought the Iraqi throughout the second half of the 20th century.
