Iraq court ruling is ‘threat to democracy’

BAGHDAD – Iraq’s parliament speaker on Wednesday slammed a court ruling placing bodies like the central bank under ministerial control as a threat to democracy, and threatened to pass laws revamping the judiciary.
Osama al-Nujaifi’s remarks came as an Iraqi media outlet published a 2006 letter that showed the country’s top judge seeming to contradict last month’s decision to tie several independent bodies to the cabinet, a ruling which has sparked widespread controversy and criticism. “We think that there is now a real threat to the constitution and democracy as a result of the court’s decision,” Nujaifi said at a news conference at the Council of Representatives in Baghdad’s heavily-fortified Green Zone.
“The parliament will present in the coming days a draft law to reform the composition of the supreme court and the Higher Judicial Council (HJC),” he added. The latter body oversees Iraq’s courts. He did not elaborate, however, on whether that meant sacking judges or reforming how they were selected in future. Among the other agencies affected by the Jan 18 supreme court decision are the anti-corruption watchdog, the media regulator and the human rights commission.
The ruling followed a request for clarity on the relevant constitutional clause by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s office. It spurred critics of Maliki to accuse him of consolidating power, while the bodies have voiced concern of having lost their independence. The court argued they should be answerable to the cabinet instead of parliament because their work was executive in nature.
“It is unreasonable that the Integrity Commission (the anti-corruption agency), which monitors the work of the govt and the state, is linked to any other body,” Nujaifi said. “That would kill its work.”
“The communications and media commission, the central bank, the human rights commission – its unreasonable to link all these bodies to the executive authority. And also the election commission, how can it be linked to the govt?” Nujaifi’s remarks came on the same day the independent Sumeria news agency published a letter written by Medhat al-Mahmud, the top judge on Iraq’s supreme court and head of the HJC, to the Integrity Commission on September 23, 2006.