Shafaq News- Baghdad

An Iraqi court has issued an arrest and search warrant for former Labor Minister Ahmed Jassim Saber al-Asadi in a corruption case involving contracts he approved while in office, according to judicial documents.

The warrant, dated July 29, identifies the case as involving al-Asadi's direct benefit from contracts and projects he approved as labor minister. It was issued by an investigating judge at Baghdad's Central Anti-Corruption Criminal Court under Article 319 of Iraq's Penal Code.

A separate warrant issued the same day concerns a second case against al-Asadi over his inability to substantiate an increase in his wealth. That case was brought by Iraq's Federal Integrity Commission under the country's Integrity and Illicit Gain Law.

The documents also show that investigators have sought parliament's approval to lift the immunity of MP Nazim Mohammed Dweij al-Asadi as part of a separate investigation into contracts concluded by the Labor Ministry. According to the judicial correspondence, investigators are examining contracts involving the recruitment and employment of foreign workers and a company registered in the name of one of the former minister's security guards.

Last month, Ahmed al-Asadi said in an audio recording that he was cooperating with the judiciary over corruption-related investigations and acknowledged that money belonging to him had recently been seized. He said he had been abroad for medical treatment when actions by a person close to him raised suspicions of financial irregularities.

Two days before the recording was released, a security source told Shafaq News that Integrity Commission teams had raided two farms in Baghdad's southern al-Zafaraniya district linked to al-Asadi and Shibl al-Zaidi, the head of the Khadamat Alliance.

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