TOUR D'HORIZON FROM HIGHER JURIDICAL COUNCIL

S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 04 BAGHDAD 001024

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/28/2026
TAGS: PREL PGOV PHUM KJUS KDEM KCOR KCRM IZ
SUBJECT: TOUR D'HORIZON FROM HIGHER JURIDICAL COUNCIL
PRESIDENT MEDHAT AL-MAHMUD

Classified By: Political Counselor Robert Ford, reasons 1.4(b) and (d)


1. (S) Summary. Judge Medhat al-Mahmud, President of the
Iraqi Higher Juridical Council and Chief Justice of the
Iraqi Federal Supreme Court, described the importance of
public integrity and the need to keep -- but improve -- all
the major anti-corruption institutions in Iraq today. He
called for continual progress to improve the quality of the
judiciary, and to increase the number of judges. He
predicted efforts to reform the Bar Association Board of
Directors would fall short, and described judicial efforts
to investigate abuses of prisoners at Ministry of Interior
prisons. End summary.


2. (S) Judge Medhat al-Mahmud (variant: Madhat
al-Mahmood),President of the Iraqi Higher Juridical
Council and Chief Justice of the Iraqi Federal Supreme
Court, gave EmbOffs a tour d'horizon in two sessions on the
afternoon of March 23 and the evening of March 25. Also
present for both sessions was his nephew and son-in-law,
Sermid al-Sarraf, head of the International Institute for
the Rule of Law and Chief of Party for the American Bar
Association's law initiative in Iraq. Present at the first
session was Layla al-Mahmud, also of the International
Institute for the Rule of Law, who is also Judge Medhat's
daughter and Mr. al-Sarraf's spouse.

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The Importance of Public Integrity
--------------


3. (C) Corruption in Iraq became a major problem for the
country after the invasion of Kuwait, Judge Medhat
explained, and became endemic during the 12 years of
sanctions that followed. After the invasion of Kuwait,
Saddam Hussein and his sons looted the assets of Kuwait.
Corruption then became legitimate. Prices rose during that
time while government salaries did not, and many government
employees started taking bribes to maintain their standard
of living. A government worker's salary could be ID
2,000/month while rent on his house was ID 100,000/month.


4. (C) After the fall of the regime, Judge Medhat said,
"the opportunities were greater." Judge Medhat said, "The
United States entered (Iraq) not understanding the
environment," and "didn't know where the corrupt entities
were. The criminal elements (then) advanced themselves."
"Iraqis think that Americans are wealthy and smart," Judge
Medhat advised. "So Iraqis agree that anyone who outsmarts
an American was smart, too."


5. (C) Judge Medhat emphasized the importance of choosing
honest ministers and top ministry officials. "If the
minister is clean and the Directors General are clean," he
said, "then even if the employee is inclined to corruption,
he would refrain from corruption. But when the employee
sees the Director General or the Minister engaged in
corruption, he will engage in corruption." Corrupt
employees often give a portion of their take to the
Minister. Deputy Ministers often divide the proceeds of
corruption amongst themselves. "We must start at the top"
to change this, Judge Medhat said.


6. (S) Judge Medhat was concerned that corruption was
spreading in ministries because of the political parties
controlling them. "Some ministers will come from classes
that are deprived," he said. Out of "party loyalty," he
said, they will work for their party, not the nation. "We
need ministers who don't need to rely on corruption." If
Iraq finds good ministers in the "technical side" (as
opposed to the political side),employees will follow."
Still Judge Medhat said it will take 10-15 years to get
control of corruption in Iraq.


7. (C) Asked who would make a good Minister of Justice,
Judge Medhat said that Iraq should find a person not tied
to a political party, especially "not from any of the
religious parties." Best would be someone working in the
ministry, rather than a lawyer from outside the ministry.


8. (S) Judge Medhat said that he had sent the Prime
Minister a letter on March 23 requesting the Prime
Minister's support for prosecuting a current cabinet
minister (name unknown) for misuse of government funds.

-------------- -
Keep Anti-Corruption Institutions but Fix Them
-------------- -


9. (S) EconMinCouns pushed the Judge to provide both

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candid views of the various anti-corruption institutions
and the judge's prescriptions for improved cooperation
among them. Each of the three major pillars of public
integrity in Iraq -- the Inspectors General (IGs),the
Board of Supreme Audit (BSA),and the Commission on Public
Integrity (CPI) -- has problems, Judge Medhat said.
However, all three institutions should be kept and
reformed. Many IG's are good, but others are political or
incompetent. In one case, an Inspector General initiated a
complaint against Minister for Municipalities and Public
Works Nasreen Barwari, which led to the CPI to seek her
indictment. The word of her indictment leaked, damaging
her reputation, but when the judges of the Central Criminal
Court of Iraq (CCCI) reviewed the file, they found it
grossly deficient. Experts in procurement were called in
to assist the CCCI panel, and their judgment was that the
charge of procurement fraud was without merit. Judge
Medhat said that subsequent investigation (NFI) revealed
the IG of the ministry was pursuing a personal or political
vendetta against the minister and, as a consequence, the IG
was suspended for six months. The solution, Judge Medhat
said, was to remove IGs with political party or militia
loyalties and replace them with experts who know the law.
It was also important that the IGs be independent of the
ministers they are to investigate, that they report to the
oversight body of IGs in the Iraqi Government and to the
Council of Representatives. Ministers must be barred from
hiring, firing, or giving benefits to the IGs. "It is my
hope," Judge Medhat said, that the IG "has no relation to
anyone in that ministry and he knows everything that is
going on in the ministry."


10. (S) Judge Medhat was particularly scathing against
whomever was leaking word of corruption indictments
requested by the CPI from the CCCI. He did not identify
who was leaking these stories, but thought it was being
done for political gain by the opponents of those
indicted. This was bringing discredit on the institutions
and the legal process, he said.


11. (S) Judge Medhat says there is a role for the CPI "if
it stays close to the Board of Supreme Audit." Referring
to Judge Radhi al-Radhi, he said, "the head of the CPI is a
clean person, a person of integrity." However, CPI staff
lack the experience in investigating certain types of
crimes that the BSA is better qualified to investigate, he
said.


12. (S) A particular problem was a sudden influx in the
staff of the CPI, Judge Medhat said. The CPI's salaries
were so much higher than comparable salaries in other
agencies, he said. This might have been done to attract
the best people and then insulate them from corruption, but
it opened up room for exploitation. "So those who have
connections or political party support got those
positions," Judge Medhat said. "So CPI has employees who
are not qualified or are under political influence." He
reiterated the importance of selecting qualified people and
keeping the CPI in close coordination with the BSA.

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Reforming the Judiciary
--------------


13. (S) Judge Medhat, who was involved in helping vet
judges for ties to the former regime, said that many of the
"bad elements" in the judiciary had been removed, but not
all of them. "The bad elements grew beards," he said,
"both Sunni and Shia." He cautioned against acting too
fast, however. "If you removed all (the bad elements) at
once, there would be demonstrations," he warned.
"Individuals supported by the parties in power" would
succeed in getting their jobs back.


14. (S) The Judicial Review Committee (JRC) on which Judge
Medhat sat was able to remove the most corrupt judges, he
believed. Removals were based on the evidence, "but a day
doesn't go by when someone doesn't write a letter
criticizing the JRC." Letters written to ministers by
those dismissed often result in a request from the minister
for the JRC to explain its dismissal. "This is why it's
important to bring in ministers who are clean," Judge
Medhat said, because an honest minister will accept the
JRC's explanation.


15. (S) Judge Medhat addressed the requirement in Article
92 of the new constitution that says that the Federal
Supreme Court will be made up of "a number of justices,
experts in Islamic jurisprudence, and legal scholars."
Judge Medhat believes that only trained judges should serve

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on the court. Experts on Islamic jurisprudence should be
treated as expert advisers to the court, with decisions
left to judges, not religious scholars.


16. (S) Judge Medhat was asked how many additional judges
Iraq needed to catch up with the backlog of criminal
cases. Judge Medhat said that Iraq has 800 judges at
present, and needs 400 new ones. The two-year Judicial
Training Institute (JTI) has about 150 judges in training.
(Note: The Director General of the JTI told Embassy Legal
Adviser separately that they have 179 in their first year
class and have been asked to select a class this year of
60-80 prospective jurists. End note.) Judge Medhat said
that the Training Institute graduated judges at the lowest
classes, whereas what he really needs are judges of the
first or second class, i.e., the most senior, to take on
the most complicated or politically sensitive cases. Some
judges will be promoted in June, but the number of cases
will increase, he predicted, as efforts to bring the
insurgency under control result in more arrests. He looked
forward to the day when Iraq needed more civil court judges
to handle commercial law cases in a more active, prosperous
economy.

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Bar Association Politics
--------------


17. (U) Regarding the Iraqi Bar Association and the
efforts to elect a new Board of Directors, Judge Medhat
described it as one of the oldest professional associations
in Iraq. It had a significant political role before
Saddam. During the monarchy, he noted, the Bar Association
and the Law Faculties helped to bring down prime
ministers. Saddam took gradual control of the Bar
association and made it a front for the Ba'th Party. In
the immediate aftermath of April 9, 2003, Judge Medhat
said, the United States tried to approach the Iraqi Bar
Association as if it were the American Bar Association, but
this did not work. Instead of letting the former Ba'thist
leaders of the Bar Association fail on their own, the CPA
rushed elections in August of 2003. As a result, the
Ba'thist board members were all re-elected except for the
president, Malik Dohan al-Hassan. When he was made Justice
Minister, one of the Ba'thist directors was elected
president in his place.


18. (S) The lawyers in Iraq do not think much of the
present Bar Association, Judge Medhat said. It does little
for them except issue IDs and collect dues.


19. (S) Judge Medhat said that the Justice Minister's
initiative to call early elections will probably not work.
Elections would have been in three months anyway. There is
no natural leader able to lead the Bar Association in the
right direction, Judge Medhat felt. The religious parties
had not been able to agree on who their candidate would
be. Judge Medhat was concerned that one of the
ex-Ba'thists was likely to win, leaving the Bar Association
with poor leadership for the two-year term of this next
board of directors.

--------------
Human Rights Abuses
--------------


20. (S) Judge Medhat described some of the efforts of the
judiciary to get on top of the Jadriyah Bunker scandal. In
contrast to those incarcerated by the CCCI, all of whom
were detained lawfully, both the Ministers of Defense and
Interior had detainees who had not been before a judge.


21. (S) Judge Medhat said he had given orders to get
judges to interview all detainees, and increased the number
of investigators, and required the Chief Prosecutor to call
the Deputy Minister of Interior to cooperate with the
investigation panels, and to prepare appropriate facilities
for the judges to be able to work in. However, corruption
in the MOI was "delaying the resolution of cases."


22. (U) Poloff said that the USG was very concerned about
the extent of human rights abuses associated with the
Jadriyah Bunker and other MOI detention facilities. It was
important for there to be a thorough investigation that all
would see got to the bottom of the allegations. If no one
is prosecuted, Poloff said, it will strengthen
sectarianism, which was not in Iraq's interest nor ours.


23. (S) Judge Medhat said that Deputy Prime Minister Rowsh
Shuways and his committee needed to meet with the judges

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who have been conducting their own investigation into the
bunker story. Justice Attache Wood encouraged Judge Medhat
to arrange such a meeting.

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Comment
--------------


24. (S) Judge Medhat's constructive views of
anti-corruption institutions and apparent willingness to
work with them was somewhat surprising. Previously, he had
not appeared to grasp just how massive the corruption
problem in Iraq had grown. Adjudications of CPI corruption
cases by the CCCI are vital for the perception of
legitimacy of the government and the Rule of Law in Iraq.
Training of CPI investigators continues, but even the most
experienced has been in place for only 1 1/2 years. The
CCCI has issued about 80 arrest warrants based on CPI
investigations, but only a small fraction have been
adjudicated.


25. (S) Judge Medhat's reputation for commitment to the
Rule of Law and reform of the judiciary was outstanding
until, in the aftermath of the Jadriyah Bunker scandal,
the judiciary fell short of what was expected from it.
It will be imperative to stay engaged with Judge Medhat
to ensure that he understands the importance we place
in getting to the bottom of the scandal and the need to
hold accountable those responsible. Finally, we also
need to place greater emphasis on trying to better
understand the personalities and politics of the
Higher Juridical Council, which will be a crucial
institution in the coming months as implementing
legislation for the new constitution tries to define the
composition of the judiciary. End comment.
KHALILZAD