Hussein Ejected From Court Again

Hussein in court (file photo) (epa)

September 25, 2006 -- The new chief judge at the genocide trial of Saddam Hussein today expelled the former Iraqi leader from the courtroom after he complained about being kept inside a metal pen.

"I demand that I am not kept in this cage," Hussein said.

It's the second time in a week the judge has ordered Hussein removed from the courtroom.

Minutes earlier, one of Hussein's co-defendants, former Defense Minister Sultan Hashim Ahmad, stood up and rejected the attorney the court had just appointed for him.

The court appointed a total of eight attorneys after the team of defense lawyers announced a boycott of the trial, partly in protest at the Iraqi government's sacking of the chief judge last week.

Hussein and his former colleagues face charges including genocide for spearheading a military campaign against the Kurds in the 1980s that prosecutors say left 182,000 dead.

In testimony today, a Kurdish villager told the court that women prisoners were often raped by a prison warden during the campaign.

(Reuters, AP)