WHO is Faiq Zidan, What was His Role in Pushing through iraq’s General Amnesty Law

Faiq Zidan and the Power Behind the Amnesty Law

Judge Faiq Zidan, President of Iraq’s Supreme Judicial Council, represents one of the most powerful figures in managing the Iraqi state apparatus and directing its legal course.

His role became particularly prominent on January 21, 2025, when amendments to the General Amnesty Law were passed as part of a broader “single-package” deal. The deal reportedly exchanged the Sunni component’s demand for an amnesty law for amendments to the Personal Status Law affecting Shiites and a law concerning the restoration of properties to their Kurdish owners.

The session witnessed heated confrontations, verbal clashes and widespread chaos among MPs over the accelerated mechanism used to pass the legislation. Several lawmakers immediately approached the Federal Supreme Court to file formal challenges and demand an injunction suspending the laws.

Although the Federal Supreme Court initially responded by issuing an injunction in early February 2025, the Judicial Council under Zidan moved forcefully to undermine that process.

On February 5, 2025, the Council issued a statement declaring the injunction “without subject”, arguing that the laws had not yet been officially published, while instructing courts to proceed with their immediate implementation.

In doing so, the Council effectively moved ahead of the objections and legal challenges in an attempt to establish a fait accompli before the Federal Supreme Court could rule on the appeals.

Recycling Extremist Elements and Serving the Saudi Agenda

The process does not stop with domestic beneficiaries. It intersects with a broader security architecture allegedly being shaped by Riyadh to restructure the regional landscape.

The transfer of thousands of terrorism-related detainees from prisons controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to Iraqi prisons—reportedly arranged with U.S. involvement—months ago now intersects with general amnesty laws and political settlements in Beirut.

This dangerous human and ideological pool, relocated into Iraqi prisons, could provide the Saudi-aligned camp and its decision-makers with an opportunity to retrieve these individuals through Damascus and return them to the regional arena under a flexible legal and judicial framework serving their new political architecture.

The Significance of the Visit at This Particular Moment

The visit of Iraq’s “Chief Justice” to Damascus to meet the new Syrian authorities suggests, from this perspective, that the Iraqi judiciary has evolved into a high-level executive instrument for reshaping regional balances and managing detainee and border files in favor of the Saudi-aligned axis, with Saudi Arabia emerging as the principal player, while Al-Jolani and others appear primarily as local implementing actors.

But when we raise the lens beyond Faiq Zidan, Damascus and Riyadh, a broader picture emerges:

Who is actually designing the game?

The argument is that major international powers are using these local actors as instruments to facilitate new maps of influence on the ruins of the old regional order.