Saddam trial judge's brother-in-law killed

The brother-in-law of the new Iraqi judge presiding over Saddam Hussein’s genocide trial was killed and his nephew injured in a shooting today in Baghdad.

Kadhim Abdul-Hussein were fatally shot and his son Karrar injured in the capital’s western Ghazaliyah neighbourhood by unidentified assailants, said police 1st Lt. Thaer Mahmoud.

It was not immediately clear whether they were targeted because they were related to Judge Mohammed Oreibi al-Khalifa, who took over the Saddam trial last week, or if it was another of the sectarian attacks that have been plaguing Baghdad.

Al-Khalifa is a Shiite, while Ghazaliyah is a predominantly Sunni neighbourhood. The attack came at 10.30am (8.30am Irish time), a half hour before a ban on vehicular traffic in the capital instituted to try and prevent suicide bombings on the Muslim holy day.

Al-Khalifa had been deputy to the original chief judge in the trial, Abdullah al-Amiri, who was removed on accusations he was being too soft on Saddam.

Among other things, al-Amiri had angered Kurdish politicians by declaring in court that Saddam was “not a dictator.”

Saddam’s nine lawyers walked out of the trial on Monday to boycott the proceedings in protest against al-Amiri’s removal.

Al-Khalifa later adjourned the trial until October 9, saying he wanted to give the defendants time to persuade their original lawyers to end the boycott, or to confer with new lawyers.

The trial, Saddam’s second, began on August 21. He and six co-defendants face genocide charges for their roles in a bloody crackdown against Kurdish rebels in the late 1980s.

The defendants could face the death penalty if convicted.