IRAQ. SADDAM'S DEFENCE SAYS NO COURT UNTIL JUDGE RESIGNS

the chief lawyer in the defence team representing former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein said that the defence would not appear in court until newly selected chief judge Raouf Abdel Rahman resigned.
"We cannot attend any trial session unless the chief judge resigns because he holds a personal grudge against my client," Saddam's chief lawyer Khalil Dulaimi said.
Saddam's trial collapsed into chaos moments after resuming on January 29, when he and his defence team stormed out and guards dragged his half-brother Barzan al-Tikriti from the courtroom after he refused to keep quiet.
"This will be a main condition to attendance at any future session," Dulaimi said of the resignation demand.
The lawyer said the Kurdish judge could not be impartial because he'd been sentenced twice in absentia by courts under Saddam's rule and was a member of an opposition Kurdish nationalist party.
"After what happened...the defence team was confronted with only one choice -- the boycott of a court that has no legitimacy, (is) unconstitutional and has already taken a prior decision to convict the President," Dulaimi said.
Abdel Rahman set up organisations to help his hometown of Halabja recover from a gas attack by Saddam's forces in 1988 which killed 5,000 people, including some of his relatives.
Saddam and his defence team stormed out of court after the newly appointed Abdel Rahman tried to stamp his authority on the court, telling lawyers he would not allow them to make political statements in court.
The new chief judge was under pressure to deal firmly with Saddam after the government accused his predecessor, who resigned two weeks previously, of being too lenient on the former Iraqi leader.
Dulaimi said political intimidation of the court against the defence had "dramatically intensified" since the resignation of the former Kurdish chief judge Rizgar Amin, who left complaining of pressure from the Shi'ite-led government to speed up the process and be firmer in his handling of Saddam. "The pressures and intimidation is now greater than ever... the new judge is preparing for a quick conviction under orders from those who run the US-created court from behind the scenes," Dulaimi said.