Iraqi Prime Minister did what?

From NYT:

BAGHDAD, Sept. 19 — The chief judge in the genocide trial of Saddam Hussein was removed from the case on Tuesday after he said last week that Mr. Hussein was “not a dictator,” government officials said.

Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki of Iraq decided to remove the judge, Abdullah al-Amiri, because he had “hurt the feelings’’ of Kurds and many other Iraqis with comments that seemed to support Mr. Hussein, according to Bassam al-Husseini, one of the prime minister’s advisers.

Mr. Husseini said the judge has been reassigned to other cases. Mohammed al-Uraibiy, another member of the five-judge panel that has been hearing Mr. Hussein’s case, will take over as chief judge.

Last week, a court prosecutor demanded the judge be removed for showing bias toward Mr. Hussein and letting him harangue witnesses.

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Can the Prime Minister do this?  Can you imagine Bush removing a judge because he thought the judge was bias?  ‘Splain this to me?  How is this a democracy, again?