Shafaq News- Dhi Qar
Nasiriyah Municipality Director Mohammed Jabbar Dhaif and his cousin are believed to have gone into hiding after an anti-corruption court issued arrest warrants against them, a security source in Dhi Qar told Shafaq News on Tuesday.
The source said the two men had stopped reporting to work several days ago. The warrants relate to allegations of financial and administrative corruption.
Several Dhi Qar lawmakers have threatened action against the provincial government over its “failure” to take legal measures against Dhaif, according to the source.
The investigation could also result in the termination of Dhaif’s assignment as Nasiriyah Municipality director and his return to his previous post in Al-Nasr district, the source added.
The development comes amid a widening investigation into alleged corruption and manipulation of public land in Nasiriyah, the capital of Dhi Qar province.
On Monday, a Federal Commission of Integrity team backed by a large security force arrested the brother of former Iraqi lawmaker Dawood Al-Eidan after raiding his home. Investigators found dozens of land-plot transaction files and checks inside the property, a security source told Shafaq News.
The arrest warrants in that case were issued by the Nasiriyah Integrity Investigation Court under Article 340 of Iraq’s Penal Code. The provision covers a public official or person entrusted with public service who deliberately causes damage to state property or the interests of the institution where they work and carries a maximum penalty of seven years.
The Federal Commission of Integrity had earlier uncovered a network involved in forging and manipulating procedures for allocating and transferring ownership of municipal property in Nasiriyah.
Investigators recovered the original allocation record covering 104 high-value properties, each estimated at around 100 million Iraqi dinars ($76,300). The commission said the transfers involved forged documents, procedural violations and manipulation of allocation records.
The Nasiriyah Integrity Investigation Court previously issued arrest warrants for eight municipal employees, while subsequent investigations expanded to include staff at the Real Estate Registration Directorate, transaction brokers and others linked to the cases.
The probe forms part of a broader anti-corruption drive in Dhi Qar. Shafaq News has documented more than 23 arrests in the province during earlier stages of the campaign, many in cases involving Nasiriyah Municipality, land transactions, forged documents and alleged damage to public funds.
Then-Dhi Qar Governor Haitham Al-Hamdani took over the administration of Nasiriyah Municipality in August and ordered dismissals and other administrative changes, while the provincial government said it would support judicial and Federal Commission of Integrity investigations.
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