THE chief judge in Saddam Hussein’s trial for mass murder, who has clashed with the defiant dictator in court, plans to quit the case that has been marred by the murder of two defence lawyers, the death of a key prosecution witness and international criticism of the procedures.

A source close to Rizgar Amin disclosed last night that the stress of the job was too much for the Kurdish judge, who has become well known in Iraq for his live television arguments with Saddam.

“He wants to withdraw,” the source told the Reuters news agency, adding that the judge would stay on for the next hearing, due on January 24. The source said that Mr Amin would clarify his reasons for quitting after the hearing but that the main reason was the hardship of the job. “It is too difficult,” the source added.

The departure of the chief judge would be a further setback to the trial after another of the five judges stepped down when he discovered that he was related to the victims of one of the defendants. Defence lawyers, whose strategy has been to question the legality of the trial by a court set up by the US occupation authority, have also argued that a fair trial is impossible in Baghdad after two of their number were killed by unknown gunmen. The first of the defence lawyers was kidnapped and murdered within days of the trial beginning on October 19.

One of the main witnesses for the prosecution has died since the trial started, and his testimony was presented on video filmed by his death bed.

Faced with uncontrollable violence in Baghdad, the court is held in the tightest security inside the Green Zone, the compound in the city centre where the Government meets and where the United States and Britain have their embassies.

Even within the Green Zone, the court has had to move from the building originally designated for “the trial of the century,” owing to the original location’s vulnerability to rocket attacks.

With his public appearances, Judge Amin has become a target for the Saddam loyalists fighting a combined guerrilla insurgency and terror campaign. The judge lives in the relative security of the Kurdish city of Suleimaniyah, but is still at risk.

In court, he has to steer a difficult course between allowing the former dictator — whom many Iraqis would like to see summarily executed but who remains a hero to others — to have his say, while preventing him from attacking the US-led invasion and the Government.

Critics have accused the chief judge of being far too lenient, and many Iraqis believed that Saddam came off best from their first confrontation.

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