Saddam pleads for sound in court

BAGHDAD - Saddam Hussein yesterday asked a judge trying him for genocide against Iraq's ethnic Kurds in the 1980s not to cut off his microphone when he takes the stand.

Saddam made his plea a day after Chief Judge Mohammed al-Ureybi switched off the toppled Iraqi leader's microphone and ejected him from the courtroom after he began a speech.

"When the accuser and prosecutor talk, the world listens," said Saddam. "When the man called 'the accused' speaks, you switch off the microphone. Is this fair?" Ureybi said he would not allow political speeches in court.

- REUTERS