http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7161-2003Aug17.htmlTwo months after U.S. soldiers arrested him for hawking guns at an illegal firearms bazaar, Iqbal Hassan shuffled into a stifling courtroom to have his fate determined by a trio of black-robed Iraqi judges.
As the 36-year-old carpenter trembled in the wooden dock, his legs bound by irons and his scruffy head hung low, the prosecutor asserted that guilt was a near certainty because the defendant had been apprehended by U.S. troops. But when the judges asked for proof, the prosecutor acknowledged that his office had received no evidence from U.S. military personnel or Iraqi investigators to support that contention.
"We can't show he was carrying a gun," the prosecutor said. Minutes later, the judges set Hassan free without even bothering to bang a gavel.
Hassan's acquittal was a small but significant example of the unevenness of the U.S. occupation of Iraq. In one sign of change since the end of the war, more than 400 courts have reopened across the country. But at the same time, lawyers and judges in those courtrooms often lament that the U.S. military has failed to give Iraqi prosecutors the evidence needed to secure convictions.
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