CHIEF JUDGE EXPECTS DE-BA'ATH RULINGS IN 7 TO 10

C O N F I D E N T I A L BAGHDAD 000242

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/30/2020
TAGS: PGOV IZ
SUBJECT: CHIEF JUDGE EXPECTS DE-BA'ATH RULINGS IN 7 TO 10
DAYS

Classified By: Deputy Political Counselor William Roebuck for reasons 1
.4 (b) and (d).


1. (C) On January 30, Federal Supreme Court Judge Medhat
al-Mahmoud told A/DCM that he expected the special
seven-judge Cassation Chamber to finish its review of
candidate appeals of disqualification from the official
candidates list for the parliamentary elections in the next
seven to ten days (o/a February 9). Mahmoud noted that the
Cassation Chamber had delivered a letter to the
Accountability and Justice Commission (AJC) requesting
responses to a number of questions including: How was the
Commission formed?; and what procedures was it following in
making its decisions? (i.e. Who is making the AJC
decisions?). The letter also requested the underlying facts
upon which each candidate disqualification was based.


2. (C) Medhat said that all candidate appeals -- somewhat
less than 400 -- were with the AJC Cassation Chamber,
including 31 appeals which had been filed with the Electoral
Judicial Panel (EJP),which hears appeals from Indepedent
High Electoral Commission (IHEC) decisions. The EJP
forwarded the cases to the Cassation Court because that court
had jurisdiction over the controlling issue, whether a
candidate is disqualified from government office under the
AJC law. Medhat noted that the Cassation Chamber had
requested the above information from the AJC on January 24
and had not received any response as of January 28. He did
not specify whether the Chamber would still complete its work
by February 9 if the AJC did not respond to its request for
evidence.


3. (C) Medhat recounted that President Jalal Talabani had
told him on January 27 that he wanted to ensure that the
Cassation Chamber judges were not influenced during their
review. Talabani also noted that it was important for IHEC
to be "flexible" because of the need to allow the appeal
process to be concluded before any conclusive action was
taken against any candidates. Medhat indicated an awareness
of the possibility of IHEC's publishing an intitial list of
approved candidates. A supplemental list of approved
candidates, that would include all candidates who had
successfully appealed their disqualifications, could be added
to the ballot. It appeared that Medhat learned of this
scenario from Talabani. Medhat said the only court that
could grant relief to a currently disqualified candidate who
sought to stop IHEC from excluding his name from the initial
list of approved candidates was the EJP.
HILL