Kirkuk PRT Highlights Legal Education with Workshop on Criminal Defense

US Public Defender Thomas Hillier joins Amjad Mohamed Mohamed Ameen, President of the KJU, for a roundtable with 7 of Kirkuk's leading journalists in a media roundtable.

April 14, 2010, Kirkuk – The Kirkuk Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) hosted Thomas Hillier, a Federal Public Defender for the Western District of Washington state, as part of a three-city tour of Iraq organized by the US Embassy in Baghdad.  In Kirkuk he participated in a Criminal Defense Workshop organized by the Kirkuk Jurists’ Union (KJU) for approximately 18 Iraqi lawyers and 15 law students from Kirkuk University College of Law

The workshop increased the understanding of Iraqis of the practice of law in the US, and Hillier stated that he had gained a tremendous new perspective on the legal system in Iraq, as well as on the role PRTs and the US government in development in Kirkuk.  The participants were grateful for the opportunity to build such connections and are looking forward to expanding them in the future through more cooperative programs and institutional linkages. Mr. Hillier and Mr. Amjad Mohamed Mohamed Ameen, President of the KJU, also participated in a Kirkuk PRT-organized roundtable with a group of 7 local journalists.  The discussion was a chance for the journalists to connect with the KJU and learn more about the Iraqi legal system to help them improve their reporting, but Mr. Hillier also answered questions on the American legal system, particularly the criminal defense system and the importance of it in the US. 

After learning about the role of criminal defense lawyers in the U.S., one of Kirkuk’s leading Kurdish political reporters stated that Mr. Hillier was a member of the “positive opposition” in society, working to ensure that government lived up to its responsibilities to its people.  He added that it was significant and impressive that the US government would bring such a person to speak to foreign audiences.