Freeance and peeance are still on the march in Iraq, it appears. From
Reuters:"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."
I guess we can add judging to the hard work list. Actually, I don't blame the guy. He's probably looked around at the growing chaos in his country, and decided, 'Why bother?'
The article doesn't shed much light on the likely results of this, except to raise the question itself.
There is already a precedent in the trial, which opened on October 19, for replacing one of the panel of five judges, so in principle Amin's departure may cause little upset; a judge quit to avoid a potential conflict of interest over one of the eight defendants' alleged role in the death of a relative.
But in practice, the resignation of the most visible face of the court outside of the dock may be an embarrassment for the Iraqi government and U.S. officials keen to show the world that Iraqis are capable of giving their former leader a fair trial.
At the very least it tarnishes the trial's value to Bush as a trophy moment.