BAGHDAD: Iraq’s top court was set to resume work Monday after nine judges who had tendered their resignations in recent weeks returned to work following the retirement of the court’s president and the appointment of a successor.
Iraq’s Supreme Judicial Council announced Sunday the retirement of the head of the Federal Supreme Court, Judge Jassim Mohammed Abboud Al-Amiri, citing “health reasons.” The Council nominated Judge Mundher Ibrahim Hussein, deputy president of the Federal Court of Cassation, to assume the position, and Hussein was appointed by presidential decree on Monday.
A court official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment, said the judges had resigned over alleged interference undermining the court’s independence and agreed to return only after Al-Amiri’s departure.
Al-Amiri could not be reached for comment.
The Federal Supreme Court has been embroiled in controversy over a number of rulings that were seen as politically motivated, including the dismissal of former Parliament Speaker Mohammed Al-Halbousi, a prominent Sunni figure, in November 2023, which triggered significant political turmoil.
In February, the top court threw out a legal challenge that had temporarily halted three controversial laws passed by the country’s Parliament. The measures included an amendment to the country’s personal status law to give Islamic courts increased authority over family matters, including marriage, divorce and inheritance, which critics have said would erode women’s rights.
They also include a general amnesty law that opponents say allows the release of people involved in public corruption and embezzlement as well as militants who committed war crimes. The third bill aimed to return lands confiscated from the Kurds under the rule of Saddam Hussein, which some fear could lead to the displacement of Arab residents.
A number of members of Parliament had filed a complaint alleging that the voting process was illegal because all three bills — each supported by different blocs — were voted on together rather than each one being voted on separately.
Most recently, the court was embroiled in controversy over its ruling that overturned Iraq’s agreement with Kuwait on the regulation of maritime navigation in the Khor Abdullah waterway. That sparked both a diplomatic and constitutional crisis after the ruling was challenged by both Iraq’s Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani and President Abdul Latif Rashid.
The Federal Supreme Court had also increasingly come into conflict with other judicial bodies.
Before his retirement, Al-Amiri had submitted two formal requests to the president and the speaker of Parliament, calling for a meeting of the State Administration Coalition, the ruling coalition in the government, to deliberate on the growing conflict between rulings issued by the Federal Supreme Court and the Court of Cassation. He proposed inviting constitutional and legal experts to attend. Both requests were rejected.
The resignation of the nine judges could have led to a constitutional vacuum had an agreement not been reached to bring them back.
Iraq’s top court to resume work after president retires amid controversy
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Iraq’s top court to resume work after president retires amid controversy
- Iraq’s Supreme Judicial Council announced Sunday the retirement of the head of the Federal Supreme Court, Judge Jassim Mohammed Abboud Al-Amiri, citing “health reasons”
Israeli FM urges Jews to move to Israel a week after Sydney attack
- “Today I call on Jews in England, Jews in France, Jews in Australia, Jews in Canada, Jews in Belgium: come to the Land of Israel! Come home!” Saar said
JERUSALEM: Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar called on Sunday for Jews in Western countries to move to Israel to escape rising antisemitism, one week after 15 were shot dead at a Jewish event in Sydney.
“Jews have the right to live in safety everywhere. But we see and fully understand what is happening, and we have a certain historical experience. Today, Jews are being hunted across the world,” Saar said at a public candle lighting marking the last day of the Jewish festival of Hanukkah.
“Today I call on Jews in England, Jews in France, Jews in Australia, Jews in Canada, Jews in Belgium: come to the Land of Israel! Come home!” Saar said at the ceremony, held with leaders of Jewish communities and organizations worldwide.
Since the outbreak of the war in Gaza, sparked by Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, Israeli leaders have repeatedly denounced a surge in antisemitism in Western countries and accused their governments of failing to curb it.
Australian authorities have said the December 14 attack on a Hanukkah event on Sydney’s Bondi Beach was inspired by the ideology of the Islamic State jihadist group.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged Western governments to better protect their Jewish citizens.
“I demand that Western governments do what is necessary to fight antisemitism and provide the required safety and security for Jewish communities worldwide,” Netanyahu said in a video address.
In October, Saar accused British authorities of failing to take action to curb a “toxic wave of antisemitism” following an attack outside a Manchester synagogue on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, in which two people were killed and four wounded.
According to Israel’s 1950 “Law of Return,” any Jewish person in the world is entitled to settle in Israel (a process known in Hebrew as aliyah, or “ascent“) and acquire Israeli citizenship. The law also applies to individuals who have at least one Jewish grandparent.zz
