The chief judge in the Saddam Hussein trial has submitted his resignation, a court official said today.
It was not immediately clear if the resignation had been accepted.
Rizgar Mohammed Amin, the presiding judge of a five-judge tribunal overseeing the Saddam case, submitted his resignation, a court official said on condition of anonymity.
The statement came after news reports emerged yesterday that Mr Amin would resign.
Mr Amin (48), said in November that his family worried about him and he had taken on two bodyguards after pressure from friends. But he stressed: "A judge should never be afraid because he defends justice and the law."
However, the chief judge has been dismayed of late by the way he had been attacked in the media by critics who said he allowed the proceedings to spin out of control, the official said.
Saddam has often grabbed the spotlight during his trial on mass murder charges for killings in Dujail in 1982 in retaliation for an assassination attempt. He has railed at the judge, refused to show up at one session, claimed he was tortured and openly prayed in court when the judge would not allow a recess.
Mr Amin is a Kurd who before the Saddam trial was virtually unknown outside his home region. He heads the panel of five judges who are hearing the Saddam case.
The trial began in October and is scheduled to resume on January 24 th.
The killing of two defence lawyers has already highlighted problems with the process in a country mired in a virtual civil war that pits Saddam's fellow minority Sunni Arabs against a US-backed government run by Shi'ite Muslims and ethnic Kurds intent on hanging a man they say massacred their peoples.
Kidnapping and murder have become commonplace and human rights groups have questioned the wisdom of pushing ahead with a trial in Baghdad rather than an international process in The Hague or elsewhere.
There is already a precedent in the trial, which opened on October 19th, 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 dockwill be an embarrassment for the Iraqi government and US officials keen to show the world that Iraqis are capable of giving their former leader a fair trial.