Hussein trial: new judge, new concerns

But Ahmed Amr, the lone Sunni Arab among them, saw things differently. He sat silently throughout much of the proceedings, but when the judge rebuked Hussein directly, Mr. Amr had had enough. "This judge came here already knowing that he would sentence Saddam to death."

Supporters of Rahman point out that he is well within his rights to eject disruptive defendants from the courtroom. But others argue that there is far more at stake here than mere points of procedure.

"The new judge, by muzzling Saddam and his people, gives the appearance that this is roughshod justice and he'll turn these guys into martyrs," says Cherif Bassiouni, a professor of law at DePaul University in Chicago and an internationally renowned expert of international law.

Public perception is more important than procedure, contends Laura Dickinson, a University of Connecticut law professor working as a researcher for the tribunal.

"The goal of this trial is to have a broader impact in Iraq, and it's not enough that the judges observe various procedures," says Professor Dickinson. "The public perception of the trial has to be that it's a fair trial, and that's very difficult in a conflict situation where there is so much tension as there is in Iraq."

Both inside and outside Iraq, however, the perception so far seems to be that justice has taken a back seat to politics in this trial. Amin, the first judge, resigned when he got fed up with the pressure to change his courtroom approach. His replacement was dismissed almost immediately following allegations of ties to the Baath Party.

Human Rights Watch called resignations of two judges, "Nothing less than an attack on judicial independence." Their removal, the New York-based human rights group said in a statement, has "created the appearance of a court that is continually subjected to political interference."

One of five prosecution witnesses who testified Wednesday was a woman who gave some of the most detailed testimony yet and pointed directly to the involvement of Mr. Ibrahim.

The woman, who testified anonymously speaking from behind a screen, said she was arrested and tortured in a crackdown in Dujail that followed a 1982 assassination attempt on Hussein.

"The interrogator hit me with a shoe on my chest and told me I should confess. I told him I have nothing to confess about. He ordered the others to put on the 'earrings' - that's what he called the electrical clips. They put them on my ears, then they took me to the operations room.... One of them shouted, 'Mr. Barzan is here!' He entered the room. I told him, 'For God's sake, I'm a woman. Master, I have nothing to confess. Why are you doing this to me?'"

• Wire material was used in this report.

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