BAGHDAD: Iraq’s judiciary issued arrest warrants on Saturday for four former officials who are accused of facilitating the theft of $2.5 billion in public funds in one of the country’s biggest-ever corruption scandals.
An investigating judge in Baghdad has “issued arrest warrants for four senior officials of the former government,” the government’s anti-corruption agency said in a statement.
The four men, who include a former finance minister and relatives of former prime minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi, are all living outside the country, according to an official at the agency who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The warrants do not name any of the officials, but according to the official, they are former finance minister Ali Allawi, the director of cabinet Raed Jouhi, personal secretary Ahmed Najati, and adviser Mushrik Abbas.
Allawi, a respected politician and academic, resigned in August last year when the scandal broke.
The case, which has been dubbed “the heist of the century,” sparked outrage in oil-rich Iraq, which critics say is plagued with corruption.
At least $2.5 billion was stolen between September 2021 and August 2022 through 247 cheques that were cashed by five companies. The money was then withdrawn in cash from the accounts of these companies, most of whose owners are on the run.
The four men are accused of “facilitating the embezzlement of sums belonging to the tax authorities,” the statement said, adding that they would also be subject to an asset freeze.
The country’s current Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani has vowed to crack down on corruption since his appointment in late October.
Iraq issues arrest warrants in ‘heist of the century’
https://arab.news/yfcmy
Iraq issues arrest warrants in ‘heist of the century’
- At least $2.5 billion in tax money was stolen between September 2021 and August 2022
- 4 top officials under former PM Mustafa Al-Kadhimi are accused of “facilitating the embezzlement"
Israel agrees to ‘limited reopening’ of Rafah crossing: PM’s office
- The announcement came after visiting US envoys reportedly pressed Israeli officials to reopen the crossing, a vital entry point for aid into Gaza
JERUSALEM: Israel said Monday it would allow a “limited reopening” of the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt once it had recovered the remains of the last hostage in the Palestinian territory.
The announcement came after visiting US envoys reportedly pressed Israeli officials to reopen the crossing, a vital entry point for aid into Gaza.
Reopening Rafah forms part of a Gaza truce framework announced by US President Donald Trump in October, but the crossing has remained closed after Israeli forces took control of it during the war.
The Israeli military also said it was searching a cemetery in the Gaza Strip on Sunday for the remains of the last hostage, Ran Gvili, a non-commissioned officer in the police’s elite Yassam unit.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the reopening would depend on “the return of all living hostages and a 100 percent effort by Hamas to locate and return all deceased hostages,” Netanyahu’s office said on X.
It said Israel’s military was “currently conducting a focused operation to exhaust all of the intelligence that has been gathered in the effort to locate and return” Gvili’s body.
“Upon completion of this operation, and in accordance with what has been agreed upon with the US, Israel will open the Rafah Crossing,” it said.
