DUE PROCESS IN THE CONTEXT OF COUNTER-TERRORISM “A CASE STUDY FROM IRAQ”

Abstract

This article provides a critical assessment of the current Iraqi criminal justice process, in counter-terrorism context to give an answer to the question of whether the approach of Iraqi legislator in criminal proceedings meets requirements of security in confrontation against terrorist and international law of human rights. The paper reveals that, there are many welcome procedures on the safeguard of rights and liberties to strike a right balance between providing due process and securing security of citizens while fighting terrorism. However, the problem is the difficulties faced by the state in its endeavor to secure national security against one of the most serious terrorist crimes. What follow is that it may be difficult for security authorities during dealing with these crimes to cope with or realize the wide standards of procedural safeguards and human rights for persons whom may be subjected to criminal investigations. This paper proposes that it may be well to enact new legal provisions or special Act that can expressly provide police with wide-ranging powers so as to arrive the correct strategy in the criminal confrontation against terrorism in the light of international standards. The study adopts qualitative research methods of a doctrinal nature by the analytical method of texts and legal regulations as well as the comparative method is useful to have some lessons from different attitudes by comparing the different legislations of some countries in dealing with the subject.