ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – The nine judges who submitted their resignations from the Iraqi Federal Supreme Court earlier this month have decided to rescind their resignations following the appointment of a new head of the court, a source told The New Region.

Iraqi state media on Monday announced that President Abdul Latif Rashid has issued a presidential decree appointing Mundher Ibrahim Hussein as the new President of the Federal Supreme Court.

Hussein’s appointment comes a day after the Supreme Judicial Council approved former chief Jassim al-Umairi’s retirement.

Judge Hussein was born in Baghdad in 1963. He earned a law degree from the University of Baghdad in 1989 and graduated from the Judicial Institute in 1998.

Since 2018, he has served in the Federal Cassation Court and leads the court’s criminal chamber. Hussein was also a reserve member of the Federal Supreme Court prior to his recent appointment as chief.

“The court has resumed its work under its new presidency. The nine judges who submitted their resignations in recent weeks have decided to rescind their resignations and return to their judicial duties within the court,” a well-informed source who spoke on condition of anonymity told The New Region on Monday.

Six of the Iraqi top court's permanent members and three reserves resigned from their posts earlier this month, under the pretext that the court’s authority had been undermined by the Supreme Judicial Council. Pressure exerted on the court relating to the Khor Abdullah case was also cited as a reason for the resignation.

“The resigning judges had explicitly stipulated that Judge Umairi leave the court in order for them to resume their duties, justifying their position by objecting to what they described as his ‘individual interpretations’ in issuing judicial decisions, which were deemed to be decisions that violate the constitution, the provisions of the law, and the provisions of the Code of Civil Procedure, which caused the decisions to lose their judicial value and legal effect,” the source added.

The Iraqi Federal Supreme Court consists of nine permanent members and four reserves.