Iraq sentences three officials, detains three over corruption
Shafaq News- Baghdad
Iraqi authorities on Monday reported prison sentences for three current and former officials and the detention of three government employees in separate corruption-related cases in Baghdad, Al-Anbar and Al-Diwaniyah provinces.
The Al-Anbar Criminal Court sentenced the former manager of the Agricultural Bank in Haditha to three years in prison for “deliberately damaging public funds” after he disbursed money for “fraudulent transactions” in violation of regulations and caused the loss of 86 bank files, according to the Supreme Judicial Council. The ruling was issued under Article 340 of Iraq’s Penal Code.
Separately, the Central Anti-Corruption Criminal Court sentenced the National Investment Commission’s (NIC) director-general of the Legal Department to one year in prison and fined her 10 million dinars ($7,600) for extorting a company in exchange for renewing an investment project contract, according to the Federal Commission of Integrity (CoI).
The same court sentenced a former acting director-general of the NIC’s One-Stop Shop Department to four years in prison and imposed an identical fine over violations involving an investment opportunity for another project. Both rulings were issued in the defendants’ presence under Decision No. 160 of 1983.
In Al-Diwaniyah, the CoI detained two employees at Al-Diwaniyah’s Education Directorate for allegedly manipulating administrative orders related to the latest round of appointments in exchange for money. Investigators seized 141 Mastercard cards from the two employees, which the commission said had been issued in cooperation with other staff members.
CoI investigators, in another operation, caught an employee at the Al-Diwaniyah provincial government office allegedly receiving a bribe in exchange for mediating the allocation of a residential land plot.
The Al-Diwaniyah investigative judge specializing in integrity cases ordered the three employees detained under Article 308 of the Penal Code and amended Decision No. 160 of 1983.
Neither the Judicial Council nor the CoI disclosed the amount involved in the Al-Anbar case or the alleged payments and bribe in the Al-Diwaniyah cases.
Read more: Iraq's Dawn Crackdown moves from raids to rulings
