The head of Iraq’s Supreme Judicial Council, Faik Zaidan, stressed “the need to revise the wording of the articles of the constitution, which has caused a political impasse.”
Zaydan pointed out in his statement that “a judge, like any citizen in society, diagnoses the fallacy or negativity of a social, political or economic phenomenon and suffers from its negative impact as part of society, but his suffering is more of a degree because he cannot fulfill his role as a judge to correct this error, and those responsible must be held accountable, given that this is at the core of his duties as a judge.”
He pointed out that “this impossibility is due to the absence of a constitutional text on the violation of the constitution, or the absence of a legal text in relation to an act that some believe is an act for which the perpetrator should be prosecuted”, noting that “the judge is bound by a constitutional rule, provided for in article (19/second) of the Constitution of the Republic of Iraq for 2005, which states (no crime or punishment without text), as well as the legal rule provided for in article (1) of Penal Code no. criminalizing it at the time of its commission).
He stated that “constitutional violations or actions that are socially and morally unacceptable, the judge cannot prosecute the perpetrators, whether institutions or individuals, unless there is a clear text that punishes them in accordance with the legal conditions governed by the constitutional or legal text. “
Source: El Nashra