Shafaq News- Baghdad

A special security force arrested on Saturday Adnan Hamad Hamoud, Deputy Minister of Oil for Refining Affairs and Director General of the North Refineries Company and Baiji Refinery, on corruption-related charges.

An informed source told Shafaq News that the arrest was carried out in the Ishaki area of Saladin province, following “Iraqi Prime Minister Ali Al-Zaidi's declared campaign against corruption and the auditing of government contracts.”

Shafaq News reviewed a classified urgent dispatch from the Saladin provincial police command confirming the arrest operation and the referral of preliminary case files to the Ministry of Interior's Intelligence and Federal Investigations Agency.

The Iraqi Ministry of Oil could not be reached for comment on the arrest.

According to Al-Zaidi’s official government program, the anti-corruption centers on institutional reform across all ministries, parallel financial investigations, reduced bureaucracy through digital transformation, and decentralization of administrative and financial authority to the provinces, underpinned by a national oversight framework.

Read more: What does Iraq's new government promise? A guide to Ali Al-Zaidi's ministerial program