Judge in Hussein trial resigns

BAGHDAD, Iraq – The chief judge in Saddam Hussein’s trial has submitted his resignation after becoming fed up with criticism that he had let the proceedings spin out of control, a court official said Saturday.

But it wasn’t clear if Rizgar Mohammed Amin’s resignation had been accepted amid behind-the-scenes efforts to change his mind.

Amin is the head of a five-judge tribunal overseeing the case against Saddam and seven co-defendants for the deaths of more than 140 Shiite Muslims in the town of Dujail in 1982 in retaliation for an assassination attempt.

The chief prosecutor in Saddam’s trial, Jaafar al-Mousawi, said Amin’s resignation – if accepted – would not affect the proceedings because he could be quickly replaced.

“There are substitutes. If any judge wanted to resign, it wouldn’t hinder the trial process,” he said.

Amin would be the second judge to step down in the case. Another member of the panel recused himself in late November because one of the co-defendants may have been involved in the execution of his brother. That judge was replaced.

A court official said Amin had offered to resign but efforts were under way to get him to reverse the decision.

The U.S. military, meanwhile, said a Marine was killed Friday by small-arms fire during combat in Ramadi, raising to at least 2,215 the number of U.S. troops who have died since the Iraq war started in March 2003.