Baghdad, Iraq ? A relative of the new presiding judge in Saddam Hussein’s genocide trial was shot and killed Friday in Baghdad, an attack condemned by the country’s top prosecutor as an attempt to force the trial to be moved out of Iraq.

On Friday night, the government imposed a complete curfew for the capital effective immediately through Sunday morning, the prime minister’s office said. It did not give a reason for the ban on all vehicles and pedestrians.

A source at the Interior Ministry, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk with the media, said intelligence information on the security situation made a curfew necessary. He refused to give further details.

In the past, such wide-ranging curfews have been imposed following intelligence information that car or suicide bombs were planned in Baghdad. The U.S. military has forecast a surge in violence during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which began Monday. A senior U.S. military official said the first week of Ramadan was the worst for suicide bombings since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

Prosecutor General Jaafar al-Mousawi said the attack on a car carrying the judge’s brother-in-law and nephew – the latest in a string of violence linked to proceedings against the former Iraqi leader – would not stop the court from moving ahead. During Saddam’s first trial, three defense lawyers were killed, and a fourth fled the country in fear of his life.

A mother and daughter stand wary on their balcony after their family car was destroyed when unknown attackers planted explosives in central Baghdad. Elsewhere Friday in Baghdad, more bodies with signs of torture were found, apparent victims of the sectarian death squads that roam the capital, and a policeman was killed in a bomb attack.

“The terrorists and criminals are aiming through this act to stop the justice and the democratic process in Iraq,” al-Mousawi said. “Killing a lawyer or a judge or their relatives is an attempt to prevent the trial from continuing, and then to transfer it abroad, but that goal will never be achieved.”

Saddam’s defense team has wanted to move the trial to another country in the belief that the current judges are biased against their client and that he is not receiving a fair trial. However, al-Mousawi did not elaborate on why those who attacked the judge’s relatives might want the trial moved.

It was unclear whether Judge Mohammed Oreibi al-Khalifa’s relatives were targeted because of his role in the trial, or if the shooting was just another of the sectarian attacks that have been plaguing Baghdad.

The judge’s brother-in-law, Kadhim Abdul-Hussein, was one of at least six people who died in violent attacks Friday in Iraq.

Abdul-Hussein was driving through the predominantly Sunni neighborhood Ghazaliyah neighborhood when assailants shot at his car, killing him and wounding his son, Karrar, police 1st Lt. Thaer Mahmoud said.

Al-Khalifa, a Shiite, took over Saddam’s trial last week. He had been deputy to the original chief judge, Abdullah al-Amiri, who was removed after being accused of being too soft on Saddam. Among other things, al-Amiri angered Kurdish politicians by declaring in court that Saddam was “not a dictator.”

Saddam’s nine lawyers walked out of the trial Monday to boycott the proceedings as a protest of al-Amiri’s removal. Al-Khalifa later adjourned the trial until Oct. 9.