Shafaq News<\/p>\n
Iraqi authorities detained at least 210 officials, lawmakers,
\nemployees, and business figures in the first six weeks of the Dawn Crackdown
\nanti-corruption campaign, according to a Shafaq News review of cases documented
\nbetween June 28 and August 9. <\/p>\n
The campaign, ordered by Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi and carried
\nout largely by the Federal Commission of Integrity, an independent state body
\nmandated to investigate public-sector corruption, with support from the
\nCounter-Terrorism Service, reached at least ten provinces and operational
\njurisdictions and touched ministries from defense and oil to health, customs,
\nand municipal administration.<\/p>\n
Al-Zaidi, who took office in mid-May, directed the opening
\nraids on June 28 under the name Sawlat al-Fajr (Dawn Crackdown). The Federal
\nCommission of Integrity executed the detentions on warrants issued by the
\nCentral Anti-Corruption Criminal Court, which is processing the cases. The
\nprime minister has described the operation as the first phase of a broader
\neffort to restore state authority and recover public funds.<\/p>\n
The Opening Wave<\/p>\n
The campaign began before dawn on June 28 with coordinated
\nraids in Baghdad’s Green Zone and several provinces. Interim counts of 43 and
\n47 detainees circulated during the first day before a security source placed
\nthe total at 67 arrests within the first 24 hours.<\/p>\n
Read more:Iraq detains top officials in anti-corruption sweep: What we know so far<\/a><\/p>\n Those detained in the opening wave included sitting and Where The Arrests Fell?<\/p>\n Enforcement concentrated heavily in the south and center as These provincial figures cover the detentions documented Which Institutions Were Reached?<\/p>\n Measured by sector, the campaign moved from an early focus The oil sector recurred throughout. In addition to Read more:Iraq detains 35 officials in weekly corruption sweep<\/a><\/p>\n Defense procurement featured in two of the campaign’s larger Customs and border administration, electricity distribution, Prominent Figures Detained<\/p>\n The campaign reached the political tier at both ends of the Between those points, authorities detained Talal al-Zobaie, Money Seized And Recovered<\/p>\n Eco Iraq, an economic monitor, estimated on August 9 that The single dominant case remained the al-Jumaili In the final weeks alone, the judiciary announced 20.703 Convictions And Asset Confiscations<\/p>\n Several cases advanced to sentencing without a new arrest. A
\nformer members of parliament, whose immunity was lifted before arrest,
\nalongside senior officials and business figures. Among them were Ali Maarij
\nal-Bahadli, deputy oil minister for distribution, in whose case investigators
\nlater reported recovering four billion dinars and 11 million dollars; sitting
\nlawmaker Mudhar al-Karawi, detained with two sons; and former lawmaker Mohammed
\nal-Sayhoud, released on bail two days later for health reasons. The wave also
\nfolded in eight suspects transferred by Kurdistan Region authorities near
\nKirkuk, three of them members of parliament, and six officials of Saqlawiyah
\nMunicipality in Al-Anbar.<\/p>\n
\nthe campaign matured. Across the cases for which a province could be confirmed,
\nAl-Diwaniyah recorded the most detentions at a minimum of 52, driven by a
\nmunicipal corruption network and a cross-institutional forgery ring. Basra
\nfollowed with 19, Diyala with 17, and Baghdad and Saladin with 12 each. Kirkuk
\nrecorded 11, Dhi Qar 10, Nineveh six, Maysan three, and Babil one.<\/p>\n
\noutside the opening wave. The 67 opening-wave arrests spanned mainly Baghdad,
\nBabil, Maysan, Erbil, Al-Anbar, and other locations but were not broken down by
\nprovince in available reporting.<\/p>\n
\non oil and political figures into a broad sweep of provincial and municipal
\nadministration. Municipal and state-land files produced the largest clusters,
\nincluding the Al-Diwaniyah municipal network, the Saladin Provincial Office,
\nthe Nasiriyah municipality and land-registration operation in Dhi Qar, and a
\nforgery ring in Al-Diwaniyah that investigators linked to more than 1,000
\nforged documents submitted to state banks, courts, and pension and welfare
\nbodies.<\/p>\n
\nal-Bahadli, authorities detained Hussein Talib al-Fadhli, director general of
\nthe Oil Products Distribution Company, on July 9, the day he was due to be
\nsworn in as a replacement lawmaker, and Montaser Kadhim Halloub, deputy
\ndirector general of South Refineries Company, in a Basra forgery case.<\/p>\n
\ncases. The Federal Commission of Integrity detained eight staff of the Defense
\nMinistry’s Directorate of Military Works, among them two generals, a colonel,
\nand five engineers, over a contract to rehabilitate the Air Force Hospital in
\nBaghdad’s Al-Rustamiya district valued at 92.88 billion dinars (about 71
\nmillion dollars). On August 9, authorities arrested Hashem al-Sudani, director
\nof the General Company for Vehicles, over a separate Defense Ministry contract.
\nThe Transport Ministry separately suspended eight senior Iraqi Airways
\nofficials, a measure counted apart from the arrest total, over the
\ndisappearance of 16 billion dinars from the carrier’s accounts.<\/p>\n
\nhealth directorates, tax collection, state banking, water resources,
\nagriculture, and traffic administration each produced detentions across the
\nfour periods.<\/p>\n
\nsix weeks. It opened with the network built on the late-May arrest of Adnan
\nal-Jumaili, former deputy oil minister for refining, whose statements
\nauthorities have described as the trigger for the wider operation. It closed
\nwith two arrests on August 8: businessman Mohammed al-Hajaf, detained in
\nSaladin over alleged waste of public money in service, housing, and investment
\nprojects, and former lawmaker Ahmed al-Jubouri, known as Abu Mazen, held in
\nBaghdad on corruption allegations.<\/p>\n
\na former lawmaker and former chair of parliament’s Integrity Committee, in
\nBaghdad on July 11; Kamel Abbas Ashraf, a member of the Saladin Provincial
\nCouncil; and two former directors of Nasiriyah Municipality, Qahtan Adnan and
\nMohammed Abdul Lilo, in Dhi Qar.<\/p>\n
\nrecoveries since the campaign began had reached about 390.08 billion dinars in
\ncash, including the dinar equivalent of 141 million dollars, plus roughly half
\na ton of gold, which it valued together at approximately 482.6 billion dinars.
\nThe estimate is a campaign-wide monitor figure and is not a sum of the
\nindividually announced judicial recoveries.<\/p>\n
\ninvestigation. By July 9, seizures reported in that file had reached at least
\n141 billion dinars, 24 million dollars, and additional properties and vehicles.
\nOn July 13, the Supreme Judicial Council announced the recovery of 358
\nkilograms of gold in the al-Jumaili case, carried out in coordination with the
\nKurdistan Region, part of a combined 375-kilogram haul that included a separate
\nconcurrent seizure.<\/p>\n
\nbillion dinars returned to the treasury and a further 2.5 billion dinars in
\ncash seized in an active Saladin investigation. Authorities also flagged
\napproximately 118 trillion dinars in government withdrawals made without the
\ndocumentation required for financial settlement, a matter classified as an
\naudit and documentation issue rather than confirmed loss.<\/p>\n
\ncourt sentenced Osama Hossam Jawdat, former director general of the General
\nCommission for Taxes, to 10 years for money laundering and his wife to five
\nyears and one month, imposing a joint fine of 32 billion dinars and ordering
\nconfiscation of properties in Baghdad and Turkiye, cash, gold, and funds held
\nin Kuwaiti and Turkish banks. Former lawmaker Bassem Khashan was sentenced in
\nabsentia to three years for soliciting a bribe, and five officials at a Najaf
\ncement plant received one-year terms for damage to public money.<\/p>\n