UAS Evening at Egan to feature Iraqi Judge Zuhair Jumma Bash al-Maliki on the Reconstruction of Iraq

Judge Zuhair is a cornerstone of the post-Saddam Iraqi legal system.

Juneau, Alaska

Date of Press Release: October 8, 2007

The UAS Evening at Egan Lecture Series will host Judge Zuhair Jumma Bash Al-Maliki, Legal Advisor of Finance and Rule of Law Issues in Iraq. Judge Zuhair is a cornerstone of the post-Saddam Iraqi legal system. He served as an Investigative Judge with the Central Criminal Courts of Iraq beginning shortly after the invasion and was elevated to Chief Judge by Paul Bremer in 2004.

The lecture will be held in the UAS Egan Library on Fri, Oct. 12 at 7 pm as part of the University’s fall lecture series. The lectures are free and open to the public. This is Judge Zuhair’s only stop in Alaska.

Judge Zuhair was born and raised in Baghdad.  He attended Baghdad University where he received his Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature. From 1988 until 1999 Judge Zuhair worked successively as a translator for the United Nations Iran-Iraq Military Observation Group, a Foreign Relations Administrator for the Arab Union Scientific Research Council, and as an Administrator for the Arab Federation Food Industry. After careers in both government and private industry, Judge Zuhair returned to Baghdad University to attend law school.

In 2004, he gained international attention by issuing an arrest warrant for several government officials suspected of corruption, including Prime Ministerial candidate Ahmed Chalabi. Despite several assassination attempts and public smear campaigns, his colleagues said he never compromised his ideals. He asserts that the Iraqi legal system must be built upon an ethical legal foundation beholding only to the rule of law.