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Judge once again kicks Saddam out of courtroom

"I served in the army for 44 years, and no one dared to shout at me. We are polite and well behaved."

Sultan Hashim Ahmad al-Tai

Saddam Hussein's genocide trial resumed without the presence of the ex-president and his defendants after a one-hour recess forced by a shouting match yesterday.

The former Iraqi president and one other defendants were ejected from the courtroom earlier in the tumultuous session, forcing the recess.

The defendants had engaged in a shouting match with the chief judge, Mohammed Oreibi al-Khalifa, who first removed Saddam from the court, folowed by his former defense minister, Sultan Hashim Ahmad al-Tai.

The outburst began when Saddam refused to remain silent after repeated requests to do so by the judge. Saddam, clutching a Koran, tried to make a statement, interrupting the prosecution's questioning of a Kurdish witness.

"The court decided to eject Saddam Hussein from the courtroom," al-Khalifa eventually said.

Saddam left with a smile.

It was the second time in as many days that Saddam was ordered to leave the courtroom.

The other defendants stood up in protest and demanded that they be allowed to leave too, but the judge refused.

Al-Tai, a defense minister under Saddam and one of the six co-defendants in the trial, was the most vocal, shouting insults at al-Khalifa and demanding that he be able to leave as well.

"I'm not sitting down," al-Tai shouted, warning the judge by pointing his finger at him.

"I served in the army for 44 years, and no one dared to shout at me. We are polite and well behaved," he said.

"You won't leave, but you can remain standing, if you wish," the judge growled.

But an enraged al-Tai kept shouting at the judge. He was eventually thrown out of the courtroom.

Hussein Rashid Mohammed, a top army official under Saddam, also demanded that he be allowed to leave.

"I also want to leave ... This is rude, you should be responsible [for us leaving]," he said.
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