US jury out on fate of hanging judge

By PHIL REEVES in Baghdad

He has sent hundreds of people to the gallows. He once dispatched the son of Tariq Aziz, the former Iraqi Foreign Minister, to jail for six years.

His proudest boast is that he put a cousin of Saddam Hussein behind bars.

But the allied invasion stopped Sami al-Baati's 16-year career as a hanging judge. In the final days before the war, he says, he refused to convict anyone brought into the iron cage in his courtroom, no matter how guilty.

Now he is waiting to learn whether the Americans will allow him to don his black robes anew, to resume the business of meting out punishment to his fellow citizens.

United States and British officials have pressed forward with trying to restore Iraq's police and judicial system and end the chaos on the streets.

Parallel negotiations were held between the allies' Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance and members of Iraq's judiciary to decide how to get the courts running again.

Al-Baati was standing on the pavement outside his fiefdom, the al-Baya'a criminal court in south Baghdad, wondering what his fate will be.

He is 53, and would normally have another 10 years on the Bench.

"I will do whatever the Americians want. We are ready," he said, without enthusiasm.

His case typifies the complexities now facing the allies as they decide which Iraqis can remain in their posts, and who must be weeded out as too close to the old regime.

The judge openly admits to membership of the Baath Party. His worn-looking brown double-breasted suit seemed to confirm his portrayal of himself as an average criminal court judge who earns about US$400 ($704) a month.

US and British officials must now decide whether al-Baati, and many others like him, can play a role in the transition to a judicial system immune from state interference. This is no easy task, as some Iraqi judges have no experience of independence, having been told what sentences to pass by the state security apparatus.

At first, the judge struck the right chords. He proudly described how he was one of the three-judge panel who jailed Ali al-Majid, a cousin of Saddam. The young man had tried to use family influence to get a friend out of jail, and brawled with prison guards when they refused his demands.

The judge was adamant that there was no interference in this case, or any other in his court, from Saddam or his henchmen.

"I always made my judgment freely and without fear. I wasn't frightened of annoying the President. I only fear God."

But he contradicted this when describing how he jailed Ziad Aziz, son of Tariq, for trying to help a friend leave the country without customs clearance by arranging for an escort by his father's bodyguards.

"We applied the law in the Tariq Aziz case and the decision was just. The President was pleased with our judgment. He gave us presents of 5m Iraqi dinars (NZ$4972) and a wristwatch."

Nor are his views on hanging likely to endear him to the allies, whose list of principles for the Iraqis' law enforcement agencies bans capital and corporal punishment.

The judge said he has sent "many, many" people to the gallows, although he said they could appeal to a higher court. He showed no remorse about dispatching people - tried without a jury - to the 1.5m by 3.05m dungeons on death row in the huge Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad, and to die on the noose in the hanging chamber, one of which was yesterday still in place.

"We in eastern countries think that hanging is just, especially for murderers. It says in the Koran that the punishment should be death, and I agree with that."

As for looters, al-Baati would give them "15 years in jail".

- INDEPENDENT

Herald Feature: Iraq