Relatives of Saddam trial judge shot

Mohammed al-Ureybi

BAGHDAD - Gunmen killed a brother-in-law of the new judge trying Saddam Hussein and badly wounded the man's wife and son, in what the Iraqi government said was a direct attack on the court by Saddam's followers.

The government spokesman said judge Mohammed al-Ureybi's 10 -year-old nephew and his sister were in a critical condition after the family was sprayed with bullets on Thursday evening.

It was at least the fourth killing closely connected to the US-sponsored court, following those of three defence lawyers, and will raise new questions about its ability to conduct fair trials in a nation on the verge of sectarian civil war.

"This was purposely and intentionally from groups which are connected to Saddam," spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh told Reuters, adding that he expected Ureybi nonetheless to continue presiding over the genocide trial which he took over last week.

Police said the family were driving off from their home along with a truck laden with possessions when they were ambushed.

They had decided to flee the mostly Sunni Ghazaliya district of west Baghdad after Ureybi, a Shi'ite lawyer, was appointed following the government's sacking of his predecessor.

Day-long television coverage of the trial, in which Ureybi has ordered Saddam from court at each of the three sessions he has chaired so far, has made the judge a national celebrity.

Court officials were not immediately available for comment.

Iraqi lawyers said the attack on his relatives would be grounds for the tribunal to question Ureybi's ability to be impartial and ask him to step down. But a source close to the court said he expected officials to confirm Ureybi in his post.

He was appointed after the government sacked his predecessor for telling Saddam the former president was "not a dictator".

In all, he is the fourth chief judge to try Saddam, since the first judge in an earlier trial quit nine months ago over what he called interference from the Shi'ite-led government.

The trial for genocide against ethnic Kurds in 1988 is in recess until October 9. A verdict in the earlier trial, for crimes against humanity concerning Shi'ites, is due next month.

The majority Shi'ite community now dominant in Iraq after years of oppression under Saddam's mostly Sunni rule. Defence lawyers, who have boycotted the genocide trial since Ureybi took over, have accused Shi'ite militias of killing their three Sunni colleagues and on Thursday again branded the process a "farce".

As Ureybi's relatives left their home in their car, followed by a pickup truck full of furniture and other possessions, gunmen in a car opened fire, killing Kadhem Abdul Hussein and hitting his wife and his son Karrar, a police source said.

Tribunal judges, like leading Iraqi politicians, live under tight security. Militants have frequently targeted the relatives of prominent figures, seeking easier targets because the family members enjoy considerably less -- if any -- protection.

Ureybi, originally from the southern city of Amara but trained in Baghdad, was little known among leading lawyers before appearing at the head of the five-man bench nine days ago, a day after Abdullah al-Amiri was fired by the government.

Saddam, 69, faces hanging if convicted but no execution can take place until after an appeals process that could take years.

In other violence, police said two officers were killed on Friday in clashes in Baghdad's violent, southern Dora district, gunmen killed three Iraqi soldiers near the northern oil city of Kirkuk and one man was killed by a bomb in central Baghdad.

A Sunni tribal leader was killed by gunmen, also in Dora. Some tribal sheikhs have become targets for al Qaeda, especially following a deal this week by tribes in western Anbar province to attack Sunni Islamist militants alongside government forces.

The Iraqi military said it captured 60 suspected Sunni insurgents in a bloodless start to what it called a joint Iraqi and US operation to flush militants out of the violent province of Diyala, around Baquba, northeast of Baghdad.

Among those arrested was a Sunni tribal leader and former brigadier in Saddam's army who is accused of organising the "ethnic cleansing" of Shi'ites from the town of Khan Bani Sad.

US commanders describe Diyala as the "perfect storm" because of a mix of Sunni, Shi'ite and Kurdish communities.

- REUTERS