BAGHDAD, 14 September 2006 — The chief prosecutor in Saddam Hussein’s genocide trial demanded the presiding judge step down, accusing him yesterday of bias toward the deposed leader and his codefendants.

“You allowed this court to become a political podium for the defendants,” roared the prosecutor, Munqith Al-Faroon, as judge Abdullah Al-Amiri listened.

On Tuesday, Saddam bellowed against “agents of Iran and Zionism” and vowed to “crush your heads” after listening to Kurdish witnesses allege atrocities committed against them during the government’s Operation Anfal crackdown on Kurds in the late 1980s.

Al-Faroon alleged that Al-Amiri was giving Saddam the time to make “political” statements that were irrelevant to the proceedings. “For instance yesterday, instead of taking legal action (against Saddam), you asked his permission to talk,” Al-Faroon said. “The action of the court leans toward the defendants,” the prosecutor alleged. He said Saddam treated the witnesses with disrespect.

A Kurdish civil attorney also told the court that Saddam “hurt our feelings” in the statements he made this week. “His statements are illegal and must be stopped,” said the woman, who the court did not immediately identify by name.

Al-Amiri responded by recalling how early Muslim rulers allowed the accused to voice their opinions. One of the “pillars of the judiciary is to treat everyone equally,” Al-Amiri said before he ordered proceedings resumed. The trial was adjourned until today after the court heard testimony from four more Anfal survivors, including a former Kurdish guerrilla, Omar Othman, who said he received medical treatment in Iran and Germany after suffering chemical burns during an attack in March 1988.

Another witness, Hama Ahmed, told of attacks by Iraqi Sukhoi jets that dropped chemical weapons on his village in February 1988. “Iraqi forces ransacked our village and took our animals,” he said. “They took everything.”

Four witnesses told the court Tuesday of mass graves where the bodies of their relatives were found two decades later.