Mosul Court Is Americans' Exhibit A

Though Locked Out Of Trials, U.S. Team Sees Model for Iraq

A Koran and case files sit on desks in front of the Iraqi judges' bench in Major Crimes Court 15. The dock in center of the room is where defendants stand. (Photos By Bill Murphy Jr. -- The Washington Post)

MOSUL, Iraq -- Last year, the criminal justice system here had nearly ground to a halt. Intimidated judges were refusing to hear trials. Some judges were allowing suspected insurgents to go free.

Then American advisers in this northern Iraqi city made a proposal: The Iraqis should bring in judges from Baghdad who would serve anonymously. And local officials and the chief judge in Baghdad agreed.

Now U.S. military officers and State Department officials here tout the Mosul program as a major success and a model for the rest of the country. But the Americans also acknowledge that the Iraqis' desire to rid the court of foreign influence has led to a situation they never anticipated. At the end of the first day of its first session in December, Major Crimes Court 15 banned Westerners from its proceedings.

So while the judges depend on the United States to help them with matters as basic as traveling safely from Baghdad, the Americans who hope to persuade the Iraqis to replicate the court across the country have no way of knowing firsthand what goes on inside. Instead, they meet with the judges in military-style "after-action reviews" that last an hour or so a few times a week.

"As Americans, this seems kind of quirky," said James Knight, a State Department official who leads the local Provincial Reconstruction Team, or PRT. But he said the court "has to stay Iraqi. We cannot dominate the structure of the court."

"Get rid of your Western mind-set," said Army Capt. Jason De Los Santos, 34, a military lawyer who was intimately involved in the court's formation. "You have to deal with the 'inshallah factor' " -- the fatalistic "God willing." "You have to deal with chai time. You have to get through that. To me, the biggest thing [is] that this project is truly the template for Iraq."

The court owes its existence in part to an insurgent blamed for the deaths of Americans and to a local judge who U.S. officials and Iraqi police believed was going to release the insurgent from jail last year. A Department of Justice official here who had previously worked with judges in Colombia and Mexico -- whose identity was shielded from defendants in terrorism and drug cases -- came up with the idea of creating similar courts here.

In its first three months, Major Crimes Court 15, which despite its numerical designation is the only independent tribunal of its kind in Iraq, heard cases against 73 defendants on charges ranging from possession of an illegal identification card to murder. The two three-judge panels that have staffed it handed down 12 death sentences and prison terms ranging from three years to life. They also acquitted 33 detainees.

"There's a big backlog, but there's a different set of numbers every time you ask," Knight said. "They're well into four figures in terms of who's waiting for the court."

The trials are very short, lasting only 10 minutes in some cases, with the judges reviewing investigative reports and witness statements and asking the defendants whether they admit to the crimes with which they are charged. Defendants are provided with attorneys, and the courtroom is new and secure, with the judges' bench, a gallery for visitors and a caged, wooden dock in the middle of the room where defendants stand.

Insurgents occasionally attack the building with mortars, Knight said, and there have been threats of suicide bombers and car bombs. Still, the Iraqi judges insisted on being able to see the defendants face to face and refused to use a one-way mirrored screen the Americans had provided. The first group of judges issued a statement to local television in which they responded to insurgents who had threatened their lives.

"They've been extremely courageous," Knight said. "This is the keystone achievement of this PRT." Before the court opened, he said, the police and Iraqi army watched as many of the insurgents they captured were set free by corrupt judges or broke out of prison, he said. "The fact that these persons were not being tried and had opportunities to escape meant that their efforts were wasted, and we were very concerned about the long-term consequences of this, for obvious reasons."