BAGHDAD, Iraq — The chief judge who resigned from handling the Saddam Hussein trial will likely be replaced by his deputy, the top Iraqi investigator in the case said today.

Judge Raid Juhi said the court trying Saddam was set up under a law stipulating the chief judge's deputy would take over for him if need be. Saad al-Hamash is the second-ranking member of the five-judge tribunal headed by Rizgar Mohammed Amin.

Juhi investigated Saddam before his trial started but is not one of the judges trying the deposed Iraqi leader.

The tribunal said Amin wanted to quit for "personal reasons" and not because of government pressure. His resignation was not expected to prevent the trial from resuming Jan. 24 as scheduled.

Saddam and seven co-defendants are accused in the slayings of more than 140 Shiites in the town of Dujail in 1982. The trial recessed on Dec. 22 after two days of testimony. Conviction could bring a sentence of death by hanging.

Amin became fed up with criticism that he let the proceedings spin out of control, a court official said Saturday.

Saddam has often grabbed the spotlight during the nearly three-month-old trial, railing at Amin, refusing to show up at one session, claiming he was tortured and openly praying in court when the judge would not allow a recess.

Amin would be the second judge to step down in the case. Another member of the panel removed himself in late November because one of the co-defendants may have been involved in the execution of his brother. That judge was replaced.

Since the trial opened on Oct. 19, two defense lawyers also have been assassinated and a third has fled the country. Police also uncovered a plot to fire rockets at the courtroom in late November.