\n\tBAGHDAD: Iraq sentenced a US-sanctioned oil official to seven years in prison after he was arrested as part of a government-led anti-corruption campaign, the country\u2019s anti-graft body said on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Deputy oil minister for distribution affairs Ali Al-Bahadli is among dozens of officials who were detained in June during anti-graft raids that took place in several areas, mostly in Baghdad\u2019s fortified Green Zone.<\/p>\n
The Commission of Integrity said in a statement that an anti-corruption court sentenced Bahadli to seven years in prison for \u201cillicit gains.\u201d<\/p>\n
The ruling requires Bahadli to return to the state an amount equivalent to more than $20 million in ill-gotten gains, in addition to paying a fine of the same amount.<\/p>\n
The United States imposed sanctions on Bahadli in May, accusing him of fraudulently mixing Iraqi and Iranian oil as part of a scheme to help Iran avoid sanctions.<\/p>\n
At the time, Iraq\u2019s oil ministry denied the accusations against Bahadli, who was then arrested during the anti-graft raids.<\/p>\n
Iraqi authorities said that the raids were part of new Prime Minister Ali Al-Zaidi\u2019s campaign to fight the corruption that has plagued Iraq for decades.<\/p>\n
But several Iraqi officials told AFP that the raids were also part of Zaidi\u2019s campaign against funding for pro-Iran armed groups and the smuggling of Iranian oil.<\/p>\n
Iraq has been under mounting pressure from the United States to curb Tehran\u2019s influence and rein in Iran-backed armed factions, which Washington designates as terrorist groups.<\/p>\n
Zaidi, who took office this year with the blessing of the United States, has pledged to ensure the armed factions that emerged after the US-led invasion hand over their weapons to the state.<\/p>\n
In Iraq, corruption is especially rampant across public institutions, but convictions typically target mid-level officials or minor players and rarely those at the top of the power hierarchy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BAGHDAD: Iraq sentenced a US-sanctioned oil official to seven years in prison after he was arrested as part…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":276706,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[14],"tags":[94],"class_list":["post-276705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-iraq","tag-iraq"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/117207191106138381","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276705\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/276706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}