Baghdad, Iraq ? The trial of Saddam Hussein is slated to resume Tuesday, bringing the promise of more colorful outbursts from the deposed dictator who has declared that he is still the legitimate president of Iraq, refused to come to court and once memorably told the chief judge to “go to hell.”

But the tirades of Saddam and his co-defendants, who are charged with the killing of more than 140 Iraqis, may be providing ammunition to their prosecutors, a Western diplomat said Sunday.

“A lot of these defendants were making incriminating statements that help the case against them,” said the diplomat, who gave a background briefing to reporters on the condition that he not be named. Along with slinging insults at their captors and prosecutors, the defendants have occasionally tried to justify the killing and torturing of residents of the town of Dujail after a failed assassination attempt against Saddam in 1982 – comments that all go into the court record, the diplomat said.

Saddam’s outbursts have been only the most bizarre facet of the trial, which has also been disrupted by the killings of two defense lawyers, the resignation of one judge, and the apparent resignation this month of the chief judge, Rizgar Mohammed Amin, after he was criticized for allowing Saddam’s frequent interruptions.

It is still unclear who will be leading the five-member high tribunal, the diplomat said, despite reports that Amin would be replaced by a judge who has been accused of being a former member of Saddam’s Baath Party.

Amin’s letter of resignation has not yet been accepted, the diplomat said. “There are ongoing efforts to persuade him to come back on the court,” the diplomat said. “You’ll certainly know on Tuesday who the presiding judge is going to be.”

Regardless of the outcome in Saddam’s current trial, prosecutors plan to move forward with other cases against him, the diplomat said. The first of these would be whether Saddam was responsible for killing thousands of Kurds with chemical weapons in 1988, an immensely larger and more complex case.