Baghdad, Iraq – Saddam Hussein’s lawyers stormed out of his genocide trial on Wednesday to protest a government attempt to sack the tribunal’s chief judge, a move against the theoretically independent judiciary that has pitched the troubled trial into chaos.
The courtroom spiraled into bedlam when Hussein accused the acting chief judge, Mohammed Orabi Majeed al-Khalefa, of infringing on his legal rights and the judge then ordered his removal from the court.
The other co-defendants asked the judge to throw them out of court as well and refused to accept their new court-appointed attorneys.
The source of the legal mayhem was a vote by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s cabinet on Tuesday to fire the chief judge, Abdullah al-Amiri, after he declared last week that Hussein was “not a dictator.”
The judge’s comments had angered many Iraqis and spurred calls for his removal.
Human-rights groups and international legal observers said the executive branch’s meddling in the trial would undermine the judiciary and send a chilling message to the remaining judges that they must toe the politically correct line.
Al-Amiri, who will remain chief justice until Iraq’s presidency council confirms his reassignment, voluntarily chose not to come to court Wednesday, according to U.S. and Iraqi officials.
