ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Sulaimani’s legal system is bogged as its population outgrows the available judicial resources. The result is long delays in paperwork and court cases.
There are only 69 judges in Sulaimani’s courts. The province has a population of more than 2.2 million.
“Disputes proceed with great difficulty in the court. I have a problem. It hasn’t been settled since 2006,” Mariwan Ahmed, a resident of Sulaimani, told Rudaw.
The judicial system in the province has not hired enough personnel to deal with the paperwork that is piling up, Omer Ahmed, spokesperson for Sulaimani’s Justice Department, told Rudaw.
The shortage of judges and staff is coupled with a rising number of complaints from a growing population. The problems for some complainants are expounded by the delays.
“There are instances in which families are in a deep trouble, so they come to the courts to have their issue resolved, but the long delays, instead of solving one problem, create two more for them,” lawyer Hiwa Gharib told Rudaw.
He’d like to see the courts hire more judges and public prosecutors.
In 2018, there were 117,070 complaints filed in Sulaimani’s courts, of which 82,785 were concluded.
Reporting by Jamal Ahmad Jamil