Saddam trial judge plans to quit - Yahoo! News

Saddam trial judge plans to quit - Yahoo! News:

"The chief judge in the trial of Saddam Hussein plans to step down, a source close to the judge told Reuters on Friday, in a development that could throw an already turbulent process into further disarray.

'He wants to withdraw,' the source said of Rizgar Amin, who is to preside over the next hearing on January 24. 'He will oversee the next sitting and then announce his reasons for withdrawing.'

Asked why the Kurdish judge, based in the northern city of Sulaimaniya, wanted to pull out of a trial that has made his face familiar around the world during long days of television coverage, he would say only: 'It is too difficult.'"