You were not a dictator, judge tells Saddam

THE chief judge in Saddam Hussein’s genocide trial in Iraq said yesterday that he did not believe the former Iraqi leader was a dictator.

Judge Abdullah al-Amiri made his remark in a friendly chat with Saddam during court proceedings, a day after the prosecution asked him to step down, alleging bias toward the defendants.

Saddam was questioning a 57-year-old Kurdish witness, who testified that the ex-president aggressively told him to “shut up” when he pleaded for the release of nine missing relatives nearly two decades ago. “I wonder why this man (the witness) wanted to meet with me, if I am a dictator?” Saddam asked.