Corruption arrests in Iraq pass 210 under PM al-Zaidi - Shafaq News

Shafaq News

Iraqi authorities detained at least 210 officials, lawmakers,
employees, and business figures in the first six weeks of the Dawn Crackdown
anti-corruption campaign, according to a Shafaq News review of cases documented
between June 28 and August 9.

The campaign, ordered by Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi and carried
out largely by the Federal Commission of Integrity, an independent state body
mandated to investigate public-sector corruption, with support from the
Counter-Terrorism Service, reached at least ten provinces and operational
jurisdictions and touched ministries from defense and oil to health, customs,
and municipal administration.

Al-Zaidi, who took office in mid-May, directed the opening
raids on June 28 under the name Sawlat al-Fajr (Dawn Crackdown). The Federal
Commission of Integrity executed the detentions on warrants issued by the
Central Anti-Corruption Criminal Court, which is processing the cases. The
prime minister has described the operation as the first phase of a broader
effort to restore state authority and recover public funds.

The Opening Wave

The campaign began before dawn on June 28 with coordinated
raids in Baghdad’s Green Zone and several provinces. Interim counts of 43 and
47 detainees circulated during the first day before a security source placed
the total at 67 arrests within the first 24 hours.

Those detained in the opening wave included sitting and
former members of parliament, whose immunity was lifted before arrest,
alongside senior officials and business figures. Among them were Ali Maarij
al-Bahadli, deputy oil minister for distribution, in whose case investigators
later reported recovering four billion dinars and 11 million dollars; sitting
lawmaker Mudhar al-Karawi, detained with two sons; and former lawmaker Mohammed
al-Sayhoud, released on bail two days later for health reasons. The wave also
folded in eight suspects transferred by Kurdistan Region authorities near
Kirkuk, three of them members of parliament, and six officials of Saqlawiyah
Municipality in Al-Anbar.

Where The Arrests Fell?

Enforcement concentrated heavily in the south and center as
the campaign matured. Across the cases for which a province could be confirmed,
Al-Diwaniyah recorded the most detentions at a minimum of 52, driven by a
municipal corruption network and a cross-institutional forgery ring. Basra
followed with 19, Diyala with 17, and Baghdad and Saladin with 12 each. Kirkuk
recorded 11, Dhi Qar 10, Nineveh six, Maysan three, and Babil one.

These provincial figures cover the detentions documented
outside the opening wave. The 67 opening-wave arrests spanned mainly Baghdad,
Babil, Maysan, Erbil, Al-Anbar, and other locations but were not broken down by
province in available reporting.

Which Institutions Were Reached?

Measured by sector, the campaign moved from an early focus
on oil and political figures into a broad sweep of provincial and municipal
administration. Municipal and state-land files produced the largest clusters,
including the Al-Diwaniyah municipal network, the Saladin Provincial Office,
the Nasiriyah municipality and land-registration operation in Dhi Qar, and a
forgery ring in Al-Diwaniyah that investigators linked to more than 1,000
forged documents submitted to state banks, courts, and pension and welfare
bodies.

The oil sector recurred throughout. In addition to
al-Bahadli, authorities detained Hussein Talib al-Fadhli, director general of
the Oil Products Distribution Company, on July 9, the day he was due to be
sworn in as a replacement lawmaker, and Montaser Kadhim Halloub, deputy
director general of South Refineries Company, in a Basra forgery case.

Defense procurement featured in two of the campaign’s larger
cases. The Federal Commission of Integrity detained eight staff of the Defense
Ministry’s Directorate of Military Works, among them two generals, a colonel,
and five engineers, over a contract to rehabilitate the Air Force Hospital in
Baghdad’s Al-Rustamiya district valued at 92.88 billion dinars (about 71
million dollars). On August 9, authorities arrested Hashem al-Sudani, director
of the General Company for Vehicles, over a separate Defense Ministry contract.
The Transport Ministry separately suspended eight senior Iraqi Airways
officials, a measure counted apart from the arrest total, over the
disappearance of 16 billion dinars from the carrier’s accounts.

Customs and border administration, electricity distribution,
health directorates, tax collection, state banking, water resources,
agriculture, and traffic administration each produced detentions across the
four periods.

Prominent Figures Detained

The campaign reached the political tier at both ends of the
six weeks. It opened with the network built on the late-May arrest of Adnan
al-Jumaili, former deputy oil minister for refining, whose statements
authorities have described as the trigger for the wider operation. It closed
with two arrests on August 8: businessman Mohammed al-Hajaf, detained in
Saladin over alleged waste of public money in service, housing, and investment
projects, and former lawmaker Ahmed al-Jubouri, known as Abu Mazen, held in
Baghdad on corruption allegations.

Between those points, authorities detained Talal al-Zobaie,
a former lawmaker and former chair of parliament’s Integrity Committee, in
Baghdad on July 11; Kamel Abbas Ashraf, a member of the Saladin Provincial
Council; and two former directors of Nasiriyah Municipality, Qahtan Adnan and
Mohammed Abdul Lilo, in Dhi Qar.

Money Seized And Recovered

Eco Iraq, an economic monitor, estimated on August 9 that
recoveries since the campaign began had reached about 390.08 billion dinars in
cash, including the dinar equivalent of 141 million dollars, plus roughly half
a ton of gold, which it valued together at approximately 482.6 billion dinars.
The estimate is a campaign-wide monitor figure and is not a sum of the
individually announced judicial recoveries.

The single dominant case remained the al-Jumaili
investigation. By July 9, seizures reported in that file had reached at least
141 billion dinars, 24 million dollars, and additional properties and vehicles.
On July 13, the Supreme Judicial Council announced the recovery of 358
kilograms of gold in the al-Jumaili case, carried out in coordination with the
Kurdistan Region, part of a combined 375-kilogram haul that included a separate
concurrent seizure.

In the final weeks alone, the judiciary announced 20.703
billion dinars returned to the treasury and a further 2.5 billion dinars in
cash seized in an active Saladin investigation. Authorities also flagged
approximately 118 trillion dinars in government withdrawals made without the
documentation required for financial settlement, a matter classified as an
audit and documentation issue rather than confirmed loss.

Convictions And Asset Confiscations

Several cases advanced to sentencing without a new arrest. A
court sentenced Osama Hossam Jawdat, former director general of the General
Commission for Taxes, to 10 years for money laundering and his wife to five
years and one month, imposing a joint fine of 32 billion dinars and ordering
confiscation of properties in Baghdad and Turkiye, cash, gold, and funds held
in Kuwaiti and Turkish banks. Former lawmaker Bassem Khashan was sentenced in
absentia to three years for soliciting a bribe, and five officials at a Najaf
cement plant received one-year terms for damage to public money.

Audit Findings And The Next Phase

Al-Zaidi ordered pre-signature auditing of government
contracts and directed the Federal Board of Supreme Audit to establish a
dedicated mechanism within 10 working days to identify inflated costs before
contracts are finalized. The Federal Commission of Integrity also signaled
expanded use of financial-disclosure reviews, under which officials whose
declared wealth rises by more than 20 percent without lawful justification can
face scrutiny.

Federal Commission of Integrity chief Mohammed Ali al-Lami,
during a visit to Turkiye, said Iraq was seeking stronger cooperation to pursue
suspects and assets abroad, and a government source said some wanted former
officials had obtained Turkish citizenship and deposited funds in Turkish
banks. Brothers Hassan and Mohammed al-Kurdi were reported to have fled to
France, with an international warrant sought in connection with the
refinery-contracts investigation.

The campaign continued into August. Shafaq News reported two
further land-file arrests in Dhi Qar on August 10, a day after the close of the
review period.

Sources: Shafaq News; Eco Iraq

—

Note: The figure reflects only detentions that Shafaq News
could confirm by case; several operations produced arrests without a published
headcount and are excluded from the total.

Corruption arrests in Iraq pass 210 under PM al-Zaidi – Shafaq News

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