INA interviews Justice Minister on several topics

INA-  Baghdad

The issue of postponing the release of individuals whose sentences have expired and the implementation of procedures to facilitate evictions away from routine was addressed by Justice Minister Khaled Shawani today, Friday. Additionally, he described the process for enacting conditional release and, in an interview with the Iraqi News Agency (INA), he attested to the execution of a strategy to increase the number of prisons and decrease their rate of release. In addition to outlining its specifics and discussing the parts of the draft law that would establish substitute penalties in an attempt to lessen crowding, he also declared that Iraq had been given a favorable assessment by the UN for its human rights record. 
 
The Minister of Justice was interviewed by (INA) regarding several topics, and in his responses, he supplied fresh and precise details regarding numerous significant files.
 
Supporting the human rights file
 
"The government paid great attention to the human rights file, including reforming the conditions of inmates and improving the prison environment, which is something the government adopted," stated Justice Minister Khaled Shawani in an interview with the Iraqi News Agency -INA. This suggests that "the government had a tendency not to limit the role of correctional departments for punishment, but also for reforming and correcting inmates." He went on, "Prime Minister Muhammad Shia Al-Sudani personally monitors the human rights case within prisons and gives the Ministry of Justice adequate support." 
 
Resolving the issue of individuals who completed their sentences
 
He emphasized that "the Ministry went towards addressing this problem through a proposal," adding, "One of the problems we faced was delaying the release of those whose sentence had expired due to approaching the security authorities and other competent authorities to find out whether this inmate was sentenced for another case or had to investigate something." constructing a collaborative database with the National Security Advisory and the legal authority, in which each party links and lists within the electronic database to receive an electronic, paperless statement of non-requirement. Now that this problem has been resolved, the release procedures are easier to use and more seamless, separate from the routine.”
 
Resolving prison overcrowding
 
"We are addressing this issue in accordance with the programme drawn up by the ministry by expanding the issue of conditional release and issuing the amnesty law according to the formula approved by the State Administration Coalition, as well as the new infrastructure, as we have ongoing projects for construction and rehabilitation and they are progressing at an accelerated pace," the minister said, adding, "within the next 15 days we will open the expansion of the Al-Amarah Correctional Prison, the Nasiriyah Correctional Prison, the Najaf Correctional Prison."
 
 
Terrorist prisoners
 
The minister of justice clarified, "There are complete statistics for those convicted of terrorism, Arabs, and foreigners, but we refrain from mentioning their numbers for some security and other considerations."
 
In order to transfer children to their countries, Shwani confirmed that "there is direct communication and continuous efforts with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the National Security Advisory," noting that "some countries have received children and are cooperating with us, but there are other countries that refuse to hand over their children under certain pretexts." This presents a challenge because a number of kids were raised in jails, therefore we must turn them over to the Ministry of Labour to house them in homeless homes.”
 
 
Human Rights
 
The Justice Minister went on to say: "We are proud, for the first time, under this government, that Iraq has submitted its reports containing its international obligations related to human rights before the relevant committees at the United Nations and other organisations on time without delay."
 
"The Prime Minister is very interested in this file and is following it," he continued. He is keeping track of these reports' file and is eager to get them accepted by the Council of Ministers and sent in by the deadline."
 
"A government committee comprising sixteen delegates from government agencies under the Ministry of Justice and thirteen other ministries convened last February," he went on. The United Nations Committee is in the interest of Iraq, so we met with them in Geneva and gave them the report on Iraq. For the first time, Iraq was given a positive and encouraging assessment of how well it was carrying out its obligations.
 
Shwani clarified that the US State Department's report on human rights in Iraq "was based mainly on information put out by certain politicians and organizations on social media and other platforms, and we in our report included no documentation of abuses by security services or Iraqi parties." It is anticipated that we will make everything concerning the human rights file and official procedures clear and present accurate data, figures, and statistics.
 
Anti-corruption file
 
 
 
Regarding the anti-corruption file, the Minister of Justice explained, “The government has made the anti-corruption file a priority, and has set the goal of generalizing electronic governance and automation as a basis and a radical solution to combat corruption, tampering with records, blackmail, and all these illegal matters. Through our procedures, we have seized large networks, and those involved were referred for investigation, and then "to the judiciary."
 
Anti-corruption file
 
 
 
Regarding the anti-corruption file, the Minister of Justice explained, “The government has made the anti-corruption file a priority, and has set the goal of generalizing electronic governance and automation as a basis and a radical solution to combat corruption, tampering with records, blackmail, and all these illegal matters. Through our procedures, we have seized large networks, and those involved were referred for investigation, and then "to the judiciary."
 
He added: “We took real measures to combat corruption, which included placing cameras in the rooms of real estate registration departments throughout Iraq, preventing the entry of those arrested into the departments, and lifting the reservation on important properties that existed after they were archived through a specialized committee, and a copy of them was deposited in the public department.” We have reduced the routine, and during the coming period we will begin procedures for granting the electronic bond to citizens in the real estate registration departments in Baghdad, and we will later expand to the governorates. The barcode for the validity of the issuances available through the Ur platform in the General Secretariat of the Council of Ministers has also been approved, and this has greatly reduced the cases of forgery of agencies. By entering the platform, the citizen can know whether this agency is valid or fraudulent, and through these procedures we have reduced cases of corruption, and we are continuing our work to completely eliminate corruption in the judicial departments.”