Mini-Green Zone for courts

BAGHDAD -- The suspect stood behind the polished wooden bars in the new courtroom. His eyes flitted nervously as the litany of accusations was rattled off: mortar attacks, car bombings, kidnapping and murder -- among other crimes linked to his alleged role as an al-Qaida in Iraq fighter.

The 26-year-old Syrian then raised his eyebrows in apparent disbelief when the chief judge read the sentence: death by hanging.

The June trial of Ramzi Ahmed Ismael Muhammad -- better known by his nom de guerre, Abu Qatada -- was the first at a new high-security complex built as a possible model for reforming Iraq's justice system and countering international allegations of abuses and shortcomings on every level.

But it is also a testament to Iraq's instability and the huge risks facing U.S.-backed efforts to rebuild key institutions. The Law and Order Complex -- courthouse, fast-track tribunal, prison and staff living quarters -- had to be built as a fortress against the violence and sectarian pressures next door, in Baghdad's Shiite stronghold of Sadr City.

Here, judges live with their families and work behind 12-foot blast barriers. At least 31 judges have been killed in attacks apparently linked to their work since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, according to the Iraqi Higher Judicial Council, the government agency that oversees the courts.

High-profile suspects such as Abu Qatada also are removed from potential reprisals -- paradoxically making them much safer than ordinary Iraqis.

And now there are far more detainees awaiting their day in court. The security crackdown in Baghdad has pushed up the number of detainees from about 15,000 in January to more than 24,000, worsening already serious backlogs.

"Some prisoners we found have been in confinement here since 2003 waiting to make an appearance before an investigative judge," said Michael Walther, a senior Justice Department official who is in charge of the 72-member U.S. Law and Order Task Force overseeing the project.

That makes it "virtually impossible" for prosecutors to make a credible case, he added.

"Witnesses disappear, evidence gets lost or deteriorates -- so we thought it was critical both for the individual's rights and for the process to move these prisoners through the system more quickly," Walther said.

The development of the complex was pushed by the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, who appears before Congress this week before issuing a crucial progress report on U.S. strategies in Iraq.

Ideally, Walther said, up to five legal compounds will be established in different regions, starting with the western city of Ramadi, where violence has fallen sharply.

The Baghdad complex is dubbed a mini-Green Zone after the larger Baghdad complex that protects the Iraqi government and U.S. Embassy. It stands on grounds developed by Saddam Hussein as an Olympic village and later taken over by the dictator's Interior Ministry. Construction of the court and additional prison space began in March -- just after the beginning of the troop surge into Baghdad. Abu Qatada's case was the first to be heard.

The defendant was accused of having fought U.S. troops in Baghdad in 2003 and then as a sniper for al-Qaida forces in Fallujah in 2004 before being arrested in Baghdad with a rocket-propelled grenade round in his car, according to Walther. He was sentenced to two years in jail, but promptly escaped from Abu Ghraib prison.

He started running an al-Qaida in Iraq cell in south Baghdad, prosecutors claimed, and was recaptured Dec. 27, 2005.

The case is on automatic appeal and is expected to be decided within two to three months. It isn't known how many death sentences have been handed down by the new courthouse, but they are fairly common for security-related offenses.

Under the Iraqi judicial system, similar to many in continental Europe, an investigative judge will interview witnesses and weigh the evidence before deciding whether to pursue the case or dismiss it.

As of Aug. 31, the court had 2,377 cases on its dockets, investigative judges had dismissed 428 cases, and 120 trials had been completed.

The trial court has one three-judge panel, with a second expected to be added in a few weeks. It is hoped that eventually five panels will sit in a new $11 million court building to be completed next year with U.S. reconstruction funds, Walther said.

Meanwhile, the existing complex is filling up -- from about 2,500 prisoners in February to 6,300 today and likely to hit its maximum level of 7,300 before the end of November, Walther said.

While awaiting trial, prisoners live in metal cages divided down the middle with 13 inmates on each side. Each side has a toilet, a shower, and air conditioning.

Said Arikat, director of the U.N. Assistance Mission for Iraq, sees signs of attempts "to improve the system and recognize that there is a problem." But he points out that abuses identified by the U.N. group such as forced confessions and torture are usually linked to Interior Ministry facilities where prisoners are held before being sent to places such as the justice complex.

In its annual global survey of human rights practices in March, the U.S. State Department said the Iraqi Defense and Interior Ministries were responsible for "serious" human rights violations, including severe beatings, electrocutions and sexual assaults.

In its latest report, the U.N. Assistance Mission says authorities have yet to show the will to hold law enforcement personnel accountable for abuses. And Amnesty International said there was "insufficient or no investigation of allegations of torture despite frequent reliance on 'confessions' made during detention to obtain convictions for capital offenses."

But that, too, could be changing.

Among the pending cases is that of an Iraqi lieutenant colonel -- identified only as "A" -- who allegedly assaulted and tortured detainees, mostly Sunnis. He was arrested in March and his case is still under investigation.

U.S. Navy Cmdr. John Maksym, who heads a Law and Order Task Force unit working with Iraqis investigating major crimes in the Iraqi government, said he was involved in investigation and litigation of other "heinous crimes" committed post-Saddam. To protect the witnesses he would not give details.

Reaching through the bars of the holding cell he shares with 14 other men, Gassan Ali was desperate to talk. Ali gave voice to many of the human rights organizations' concerns.

A former interpreter for the U.S. military in Amiriyah, about 25 miles west of Baghdad, the 37-year-old said he was picked up by Iraqi police in April from his home and thrown behind bars for no reason.

"They just put me here, innocent, many people like this here. They say, do I know the terrorist? I don't know any terrorist," he said in broken English.

He said he was never presented with any charges or evidence, and suspects he signed a confession at the police station when officials briefly removed his blindfold.

"I signed, but I don't know what I signed -- blind me off, blind me on and sign and thumbprint on paper," he said.

His biggest desires are to let his family know he's OK, and to have someone hear his side of the story.

"We want (them to) push us to court, this is what we need," he said. "I want to explain, not just me, many people here need court to explain."

The Law and Order Task Force does not give breakdowns of types of sentence, or a figure for death penalties. An estimated 50 percent of cases that go to trial before the jury-less court end in acquittals, which Walther takes as a good sign.

"If the court was convicting 100 percent, we'd be concerned it was just sort of railroad justice," he said.

The preponderance of potentially innocent detainees adds pressure to clear the backlog faster, he said.

"We really have to push people through the system, especially in view of the results we have: 50 percent of the people will be let go," he said.

The convictions have broken down about equally between Sunni and Shiite defendants, suggesting an absence of the sectarian pressures that judges elsewhere in Iraq are encountering, Walther said.

The current trial panel consists of a Sunni and two Shiites, one of them married to a Sunni. The chief prosecutor is a Sunni.

The chief judge is a 57-year-old who adjudicated cases for 20 years under Saddam and now lives in the compound with his wife and children.

"To work as a judge -- no matter where you work there's a lot of risk. Even under Saddam Hussein's regime we had risks. But now there's even more with sectarian and terrorist concerns," he said on condition that his name not be used out of security concerns.

He said the Abu Qatada case, over which he presided, was a good example of how sectarian and terrorist concerns were put aside.

"I am Shiite, but I have cousins married to Sunnis and we don't have that sectarian idea in our mind," the judge said, sitting at his polished desk in a high-backed leather chair and speaking through an interpreter.

"With Abu Qatada, when he took the stand he said that he was a Shiite. We didn't care, he got the death sentence. We work with evidence, and if he's guilty we'll sentence him, and if not we'll release him -- Sunni or Shiite."