Gunmen opened fire on his car, killing the judge and wounding a 10-year-old nephew of the judge and a third person in the car, according to one police source.

Another police source said the nephew had died and the third person, who was Ureybi's sister, was seriously wounded.

It was not immediately clear if the attack was linked to Ureybi's work at the Iraqi High Tribunal. He was appointed chief judge last week after the government sacked his predecessor for telling Saddam the former president was "not a dictator".

Three defence lawyers working for Saddam and his co-accused have been killed over the past year and international legal rights groups have questioned whether he can have a fair trial in a country on the brink of sectarian civil war.