Rizgar Mohammed Amin

Who is Rizgar Mohammed Amin?

Rizgar Mohammed Amin is the former chief judge of the Iraqi Special Tribunal's Al-Dujail trial. He is the only judge whose name was revealed on the trial's opening on 19 October 2005, the names of the other four judges and all but two of his four colleagues faces not allowed to be shown during the televised portions of the trial.

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 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.