SULAIMANIYAH, Iraq, Oct 19 (AFP) - 11h08 - Kurdish judge Rizkar Mohammed Amin will preside over the trial of ousted Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein opening on Wednesday, a Kurdish official said.Five judges will be on the panel trying Saddam and seven former cohorts on a charge of crimes against humanity over a 1982 massacre of Shiite villagers. They face the death penalty if convicted.

Amin has served as an investigating judge for 10 years in his native city of Sulaimaniyah, in the Kurdish north of Iraq, where he also worked as a lawyer for three years. He was born in 1957 and studied law at the University of Baghdad.

Iraq's Kurdish President Jalal Talabani is opposed to the death penalty although he has said Saddam deserves to die 100 times for his crimes.