Sunni Arabs arrested in plot to kill Saddam Hussein's judge

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The courtroom will be the same but uncertainty surrounds nearly everything else as the trial of Saddam Hussein resumes Monday after a five-week recess.\nWill the court grant a defense request for a three-month postponement? Will witnesses testify behind screens to shield their identities? Will Saddam's foreign lawyers, including former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, be allowed to attend the trial?\nEven the precise time for convening the session was kept secret -- for fear of attacks by supporters and opponents of the ousted ruler.\nTight security surrounded the entire proceedings, which are restarting in the same specially built courtroom in the heavily guarded Green Zone where the first session was held Oct. 19.\nUnderscoring the need for such measures, police announced Sunday that they had arrested eight Sunni Arabs for allegedly plotting to kill the court official who prepared the indictment charging Saddam and seven co-defendants with crimes against humanity.\nThe eight alleged plotters were apprehended Saturday in the northern city of Kirkuk, police Col. Anwar Qadir said. He said they were carrying written instructions from a former top Saddam deputy, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, ordering them to kill investigating judge Raed Juhi, who submitted the charges to the trial court in July.\nAl-Douri is the highest ranking member of the Saddam regime still at large and is believed to be at least the symbolic leader of Saddam loyalists fighting U.S. forces and Iraq's new government.\n"As an Iraqi citizen and a judge, I am vulnerable to assassination attempts," Juhi told The Associated Press. "If I thought about this danger, then I would not be able to perform my job ... I will practice my profession in a way that serves my country and satisfies my conscience."\nSaddam and seven co-defendants are charged in the killing of more than 140 Shiite Muslims after an assassination attempt against the former president in the Shiite town of Dujail in 1982. Convictions could bring a sentence of death by hanging.\nInsecurity from the predominantly Sunni insurgency has complicated efforts to put Saddam on trial and forced draconian measures. For example, names of four of the five trial judges have been kept secret and some of the 35 witnesses may testify behind curtains to protect them from reprisal.\nDefense lawyers had threatened to boycott the proceedings after two of their colleagues were slain in two attacks following the opening session Oct. 19. However, lawyer Khamees al-Ubaidi told the AP on Sunday that the defense team would attend after an agreement with U.S. and Iraqi authorities on improving security for them.\nOn the eve of the hearing, Clark and former Qatari Justice Minister Najib al-Nueimi flew to the capital from Amman, Jordan, to lend weight to the defense team. Both have been advising Saddam's lawyers and support their call to have the trial moved out of Iraq because of the violence.\nHowever, neither Clark nor al-Nueimi has been officially recognized by the court as legal counsel. U.S. and Iraqi officials said Saddam's chief lawyer, Khalil al-Dulaimi, did not officially request permission for any foreign attorneys to attend the trial.\nIraqi law permits foreign lawyers to act as advisers but requires that those arguing cases in court must be members of the local bar association.