Lawmaker: Baghdad's impeached mayor fled overseas to escape legal action

Shafaq News/ Baghdad's dismissed mayor, Alaa Kadhim Maan, has fled overseas to escape legal liability following his impeachment, member of the State of Law parliamentary bloc Aliya Nasif revealed on Monday.

"His dismissal would not protect him from legal liability. He has to face dozens of lawsuits over charges related to bribery, financial and administrative corruption," the legislator told Shafaq News Agency Agency. 

Nasif commended the caretaker Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi's decision, highlighting the deterioration of services in the capital city under his administration and his involvement in corrupt deals in order to pocket personal gains.

"The achievements the mayor riddled in corruption and bribery was vocal about were merely cartoonish slogans and social media pictures."

"He fled the country prior to the issuance of the cabinet order to avoid legal accountability," she continued, "however, we wi extradite him from wherever he went after submitting the necessary documents to Judiciary and issuing an arrest warrant."

On May 13, lawmaker Sarwa Abdul-Wahed said that Maan would be impeached for "corruption and failure," but the latter refuted Abdul-Wahed's claims.

However, earlier today, al-Kadhimi's bureau issued a decision exempting Maan from his duties as Baghdad's mayor. 

The document appended by the signature of al-Kadhimi's secretary quoted a statement written by the Prime Minister himself on the margin of the dismissal request, "Baghdad and her people were wronged. I was expecting the mayor might lift the city."

"However, the outcomes did not tantamount to the level of expectations and pledges. It was all promises, but no action. The services in the city have deteriorated to an intolerable level," the document quoted al-Kadhimi.

"In order to rectify the course rapidly, I approve the request to end the mandate of Baghdad's mayor," he concluded.