Malik Dohan al-Hassan


Dr Malik Dohan al-Hassan, is an Iraqi politician who was the Minister of Justice in the Iraqi Interim Government from June 2004 to May 2005.

Early life

Dr al-Hassan was born in al-Hilla in 1919 to a shi'a Arab family. He graduated from the University of Baghdad in 1947. After graduation Dr Malik Dohan al-Hassan became an investigating judge in 1947. He continued his studies in France where he received a Diploma in Public and Private Law from Montpellier University and a Doctorate in Law from the University of Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne. He then became a Professor of Law at the University of Baghdad. He was elected President of the Al-Mustansiriya University in 1966.

Pre-Saddam government

He was twice elected to the Council of Representatives of Iraq under the monarchy. He was appointed the Minister of Culture and Information in 1967 by President Abdul Rahman Arif. He was imprisoned under Saddam Hussein.

Post-Saddam

In 2003 he was elected to head the Iraqi Bar Association. He was appointed to a task force looking at compensation for the victims of the Saddam Hussein government. In June 2004 he was appointed the Minister of Justice in the Iraqi Interim Government. As Minister, he was targeted by a car bomb in July 2004 that killed six people, including his nephew. Responsibility was claimed by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, head of al-Qaeda in Iraq. He defended the use of the death penalty against former President Saddam Hussein, saying "...we have the right and even the obligation to use the tools that we see useful".
In August 2004 he threatened to resign unless a judge who had indicted Ahmad Chalabi for murder and money laundering was removed.

2005 Iraqi elections

He had initially called for the Iraqi legislative election of January 2005 to be postponed as they could "...trigger civil war". He nonetheless took part with the National Democratic Coalition, who only received 9,747 votes. Even though he did not get elected, he remains a vocal figure in foreign media and is often asked for his opinion. In February 2007, he criticised the proposed Oil and Gas Law as being too vague.