Hussein Judge Is Said To Quit

Conflicting Reports Follow Complaints, Political Pressure

Presiding Judge Rizgar Mohammed Amin, shown last month presiding over the trial of Saddam Hussein, tolerated the former president's theatrics. (Pool Photo By Stefan Zaklin -- Associated Press)

BAGHDAD, Jan. 14 -- The chief judge presiding over the trial of Saddam Hussein submitted his resignation last week after coming under public criticism for the way he was handling the courtroom, another judge involved in the case said Saturday.

For two days, rumors have circulated that Judge Rizgar Mohammed Amin had resigned. Two other judges told news agencies that he had not. But Hussein Mussawi, a judge involved with the case, said Amin had quit after all.

"This is true," Mussawi said of Amin's resignation in an interview broadcast on al-Arabiya television Saturday evening. "The reason is, there is a lot of pressure on the judge."

Asked what kind of pressure, Mussawi said: "Public pressure."

Many Iraqis, some of them members of the government, had criticized Amin for allowing Hussein to dominate the court proceedings. The deposed dictator has frequently interrupted the trial to make fervent speeches in which he accused witnesses of lying and his jailers of mistreating him, and called the court "a stooge of the occupation."

Amin has often allowed Hussein's theatrics. Critics have suggested that he take a firmer hand with Hussein, who faces charges related to the killings of more than 140 Shiite Muslims in 1982 and the torture and imprisonment of hundreds more from the village of Dujail, 35 miles north of Baghdad.

Shiites and Kurds, two groups that suffered heavily during the Hussein era, have been particularly infuriated with Amin.

Mussawi insisted the pressure put on Amin was not political and rejected suggestions that Ibrahim Jafari, Iraq's prime minister and a Shiite, was trying to force him out or influence the handling of the case.

But at least one Iraqi official said he believed otherwise.

"The whole court is under political pressure," a source close to Amin told the Reuters news agency, adding that Amin submitted his resignation last week. "He had complaints from the government that he was being too soft in dealing with Saddam Hussein and his co-defendants. They want things to go faster."

Government officials were unavailable for comment Saturday, which was the last day of Eid al-Adha, the Muslim feast of sacrifice.

Mussawi said others were trying to persuade Amin to reconsider, and a Western diplomat said he would not believe the news until Amin or a high-ranking government official made a public statement on the matter.