Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
USA Today
February 27, 2008
Pg. 8
Officials' corruption trial this week a step forward
By Donna Leinwand, USA Today
BAGHDAD -- Justice Department lawyer Reid Pixler arrived nearly two years ago in the northern city of Mosul and found a disturbing trend: The military was rounding up insurgents, but the Iraqi courts were letting them go.
"No terrorists were being tried," Pixler says. "It was a catch-and-release program."
Local judges, fearing assassination, pushed the terrorist cases to the main criminal court in Baghdad, losing evidence and witnesses and, ultimately, the cases. "Confidence in government was non-existent," Pixler says.
Ongoing violence has slowed efforts by the military, the U.S. Justice Department and the Iraqi government to establish new courts, rebuild the judiciary, train attorneys and hold trials. In the past three years, 35 judges, attorneys and judicial employees have been assassinated, both governments say.
Yet small victories, born from great effort, are beginning to emerge. Pixler, working with local judges and lawyers, created a secure judicial compound in Mosul with housing for judges and their families. In the past year, the court has tried 250 terrorism-related cases, he says.
The number of Iraqi judges has more than doubled in the past two years, from 500 to 1,200. Justice Department advisers have helped Iraqis staff and open secure criminal court complexes around the country.
This week, the central criminal court is trying a major public corruption case against two Shiite health ministers accused of orchestrating the kidnapping and killing of Sunni officials who worked at the ministry. The court is now housed in the heavily fortified "Rule of Law Complex" in Rusafa, a neighborhood on the edge of the notoriously poor, restive Sadr City.
Bill Gallo, who directs the Justice Department's Law and Order Task Force, says the trial may be a defining moment for Iraqi justice. "If you don't have law, you have disorder," he says. "All the troops and programs won't matter if you don't respect the rule of law."
Attorney General Michael Mukasey, who visited the Green Zone in Baghdad this month, has highlighted the slow but steady progress. More than 200 Justice Department employees, including assistant U.S. attorneys, FBI agents and federal marshals, are working throughout Iraq.
Justice and military officials are helping to train and vet judges and are working with the bar associations to recruit prosecutors and defense attorneys. Justice advisers also are trying to assure decent conditions and due process for detainees in the prisons.
"The Iraqis are going to get a great opportunity," Mukasey says of their chance to rebuild. "But it's all very fragile."
The chief investigative judge of the Central Criminal Court of Iraq at Karkh in western Baghdad, who asked that his name be withheld because insurgents have threatened him, has lived for two years in the secure zone. He says that despite the threats and hardships, he has seen incremental progress.
"People trust the judicial system more than before," he says. "For the first time, a judge can order the arrest of a (corrupt) minister. All the judges believe the same as I do in the new Iraq."
The first Justice Department advisers who arrived after Saddam Hussein's government collapsed in 2003 found a functioning civil court system that settled business and personal matters. The criminal justice system needed a complete overhaul. Saddam had used it for sham political trials and, more recently, insurgents had targeted the criminal judiciary as a way to destabilize the government.
The Justice advisers found a fearful judiciary and laws that protect Iraq's most powerful people. Some lawyers and other professionals had fled the country to escape the sectarian violence or have been barred from jobs because of their affiliation with the Baathist government.
The U.S. Embassy is trying to persuade the Iraq government to rescind Rule 136-B, which allows Cabinet ministers to halt an investigation if it implicates a ministry employee, says FBI agent Martin Martinez, assistant legal attach� on the major crimes task force.
A recent example involved a prison employee who allegedly tortured detainees by using electric shock and a chain and hoist that dislocated the victims' shoulders. A senior government official invoked the rule and pardoned the employee, Martinez says.
In Iraq, investigative judges gather the evidence and interview witnesses. The cases are then presented to a three-judge panel, which also can question witnesses and demand additional evidence.
A lack of investigative judges in particular is hampering the trial system, says Mike Pannek, who advises the Iraqi corrections system. Some detainees have been awaiting trial for more than three years, Pannek says, adding that Iraqi judges "don't have the same sense of urgency" as American judges who must give criminal defendants a speedy trial.
Pixler says the lack of investigative judges is the "choke point" in his province.
Fixing such systemic problems won't be easy. "It's going to take courageous investigators and police as well as judges," Gallo says. "I'm not talking about street crime. I'm talking about cases that really matter -- like the Ministry of Health case -- even if it's an acquittal. It's (about) having the transparent process."
Exhibit A: The docket
Central Criminal Court of Iraq at the Rusafa Rule of Law Complex{+1}
Cases closed or dismissed by investigative judges: 1,096
Cases investigated and referred to trial: 753
Cases under investigation: 4,245
Cases scheduled for trial: 481
Trials completed: 471
1 - Court demographics as of Dec. 11
Source: U.S. Department of Justice Rule of Law Complex, Baghdad
February 27, 2008
Pg. 8
Officials' corruption trial this week a step forward
By Donna Leinwand, USA Today
BAGHDAD -- Justice Department lawyer Reid Pixler arrived nearly two years ago in the northern city of Mosul and found a disturbing trend: The military was rounding up insurgents, but the Iraqi courts were letting them go.
"No terrorists were being tried," Pixler says. "It was a catch-and-release program."
Local judges, fearing assassination, pushed the terrorist cases to the main criminal court in Baghdad, losing evidence and witnesses and, ultimately, the cases. "Confidence in government was non-existent," Pixler says.
Ongoing violence has slowed efforts by the military, the U.S. Justice Department and the Iraqi government to establish new courts, rebuild the judiciary, train attorneys and hold trials. In the past three years, 35 judges, attorneys and judicial employees have been assassinated, both governments say.
Yet small victories, born from great effort, are beginning to emerge. Pixler, working with local judges and lawyers, created a secure judicial compound in Mosul with housing for judges and their families. In the past year, the court has tried 250 terrorism-related cases, he says.
The number of Iraqi judges has more than doubled in the past two years, from 500 to 1,200. Justice Department advisers have helped Iraqis staff and open secure criminal court complexes around the country.
This week, the central criminal court is trying a major public corruption case against two Shiite health ministers accused of orchestrating the kidnapping and killing of Sunni officials who worked at the ministry. The court is now housed in the heavily fortified "Rule of Law Complex" in Rusafa, a neighborhood on the edge of the notoriously poor, restive Sadr City.
Bill Gallo, who directs the Justice Department's Law and Order Task Force, says the trial may be a defining moment for Iraqi justice. "If you don't have law, you have disorder," he says. "All the troops and programs won't matter if you don't respect the rule of law."
Attorney General Michael Mukasey, who visited the Green Zone in Baghdad this month, has highlighted the slow but steady progress. More than 200 Justice Department employees, including assistant U.S. attorneys, FBI agents and federal marshals, are working throughout Iraq.
Justice and military officials are helping to train and vet judges and are working with the bar associations to recruit prosecutors and defense attorneys. Justice advisers also are trying to assure decent conditions and due process for detainees in the prisons.
"The Iraqis are going to get a great opportunity," Mukasey says of their chance to rebuild. "But it's all very fragile."
The chief investigative judge of the Central Criminal Court of Iraq at Karkh in western Baghdad, who asked that his name be withheld because insurgents have threatened him, has lived for two years in the secure zone. He says that despite the threats and hardships, he has seen incremental progress.
"People trust the judicial system more than before," he says. "For the first time, a judge can order the arrest of a (corrupt) minister. All the judges believe the same as I do in the new Iraq."
The first Justice Department advisers who arrived after Saddam Hussein's government collapsed in 2003 found a functioning civil court system that settled business and personal matters. The criminal justice system needed a complete overhaul. Saddam had used it for sham political trials and, more recently, insurgents had targeted the criminal judiciary as a way to destabilize the government.
The Justice advisers found a fearful judiciary and laws that protect Iraq's most powerful people. Some lawyers and other professionals had fled the country to escape the sectarian violence or have been barred from jobs because of their affiliation with the Baathist government.
The U.S. Embassy is trying to persuade the Iraq government to rescind Rule 136-B, which allows Cabinet ministers to halt an investigation if it implicates a ministry employee, says FBI agent Martin Martinez, assistant legal attach� on the major crimes task force.
A recent example involved a prison employee who allegedly tortured detainees by using electric shock and a chain and hoist that dislocated the victims' shoulders. A senior government official invoked the rule and pardoned the employee, Martinez says.
In Iraq, investigative judges gather the evidence and interview witnesses. The cases are then presented to a three-judge panel, which also can question witnesses and demand additional evidence.
A lack of investigative judges in particular is hampering the trial system, says Mike Pannek, who advises the Iraqi corrections system. Some detainees have been awaiting trial for more than three years, Pannek says, adding that Iraqi judges "don't have the same sense of urgency" as American judges who must give criminal defendants a speedy trial.
Pixler says the lack of investigative judges is the "choke point" in his province.
Fixing such systemic problems won't be easy. "It's going to take courageous investigators and police as well as judges," Gallo says. "I'm not talking about street crime. I'm talking about cases that really matter -- like the Ministry of Health case -- even if it's an acquittal. It's (about) having the transparent process."
Exhibit A: The docket
Central Criminal Court of Iraq at the Rusafa Rule of Law Complex{+1}
Cases closed or dismissed by investigative judges: 1,096
Cases investigated and referred to trial: 753
Cases under investigation: 4,245
Cases scheduled for trial: 481
Trials completed: 471
1 - Court demographics as of Dec. 11
Source: U.S. Department of Justice Rule of Law Complex, Baghdad