Rizgar Mohammed Amin

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Rizgar Mohammed Amin

Rizgar Mohammed Amin (Arabic: رزكار محمد أمين) (born 1958) is the former chief judge of the Iraqi Special Tribunal's Al-Dujail trial. He is the only judge whose identity was revealed on the trial's opening on 19 October 2005, the names and faces of his four colleagues remaining secret.

Amin graduated from the Law School of Baghdad University in 1980. He is an ethnic Kurd, though he has no record of political activism, or connections to the Peshmerga. He was a regional judge during the presidency of Saddam Hussein. Amin lives in Sulaymaniyah with his wife Nazanin Ahmed (born 1962) and four children, born between 1990 and 2001.

Because he had refused to join the Ba'ath party, he was only admitted to the college of judges in 1990, after working in a subordinate position for ten years. Amin was appointed chief judge of the regional court by Jalal Talabani in the mid-1990s.

On 14 January 2006, he resigned as chief judge of the trials of Saddam Hussein, citing government interference and harsh public criticism. He was urged by colleagues, as well as by the Iraqi and US governments, to reconsider his position, but declined. He was replaced by Rauf Rashid Abd al-Rahman.

External links

• Saddam Hussein judge to quit trial, friend says, Guardian Unlimited 14 January 2006
• Saddam trial judge offers to quit, BBC News 15 January 2006
• Pressure on Saddam judge to stay in job, Guardian Unlimited 16 January 2006
• Iraq court names new Saddam judge, BBC News 23 January 2006