Iraqi judges set to return to duty

SALMAN PAK, Iraq, March 14 (UPI) -- The security situation and progress on the reconstruction front allowed a group of Iraqi judges to review a new government center in Salman Pak.

Several area judges in the community, located about 50 miles southeast of Baghdad, fled the area due to death threats. One judge even spent two years undergoing reconstructive surgery in Germany following a gunshot wound to the face.

But the violence not only signaled a lack of security, as al-Qaida operatives infiltrated the area; it left many of the remaining residents and surrounding communities without a general sense of the rule of law.

U.S. officials worked to renovate the Salman Pak courthouse and officially reopened the facility Feb. 20. The community marked the symbolic return to order in the city when the Iraqi panel of judges for the area toured the facility, the U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry Division said in a statement.

The courthouse is undergoing further renovations following the neglect that resulted from the conflict in Iraq, and U.S. officials familiar with the project said the official return of the judges was scheduled for the end of April.