Iraq's Supreme Judicial Council announced the recovery of 375 kilograms of gold as part of the "Dawn Prayer" campaign, in one of the largest recoveries of looted assets since the start of the anti-corruption campaign carried out by the authorities weeks ago, which includes officials, ministers and deputies from the first and second rows.
According to a statement issued by the council on Monday, July 13, 358 kilograms of gold were seized in the case, while the judge in charge of the Corruption Crimes Court confirmed that the total amount of seized amounted to 375 kilograms, which were confiscated in coordination with the Kurdistan Regional Authorities and handed over to the treasury of the Central Bank of Iraq, as part of the completion of investigations related to the recovery of movable and immovable funds and the punishment of those involved.
In the same context, a Cabinet official confirmed that the Ministry of Interior is coordinating with Interpol and a number of countries to recover more than 40 wanted persons in cases of corruption and illegal enrichment, indicating that about 30 of them fled during the first days of the campaign to several countries, including Jordan, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Greece, and that Baghdad is in the process of receiving a number of them soon.
The official pointed out that the coming days "will witness the execution of new arrest warrants against those involved in cases of forged certificates and investment licenses that resulted in financial waste and extensive bribes".
In parallel developments, the Iraqi parliament referred the case of the dismissed head of the Investment Commission Haider Makiya to the Integrity Commission after voting on his dismissal, while the Ministry of Transport froze the powers of Iraqi Airways Director General Manaf Abdel Moneim until the end of the investigation into financial files.
Baghdad witnessed the arrest of the former head of the Integrity Committee, Talal al-Zobai, against the background of corruption cases, making him the second head of the committee to be arrested in one month, after the arrest of Ziad al-Janabi, in addition to the arrest of MP Alia Nassif and the confiscation of huge sums of money from her house estimated at about 98 billion dinars.
Penalties Expected Under Iraqi Law
Iraqi judicial sources said that the expected penalties are distributed over multiple tracks, including imprisonment, fines, confiscation, and dismissal, pointing out that Article 307 of the Penal Code punishes an employee who asks for or accepts a benefit in exchange for performing an act of his job with imprisonment for a period of up to 10 years, while Article 340 punishes him with imprisonment for a period not exceeding 7 years. years of any employee who intentionally harms state funds or interests, which are articles commonly applied to job crimes related to bribery and abuse of office.
The sources pointed out that Article 36 of the Anti-Money Laundering Law stipulates a prison sentence of up to 15 years, in addition to heavy fines not less than the value of the money at the crime and may reach four times the value of the money at the crime, which applies to the seizure of 375 kilograms of gold that was used to conceal the sources of illegal funds.
The sources indicated that the legal procedures include the sentence of complete dismissal from public office and the deprivation of convicts from holding any government or parliamentary position in the future, in addition to the loss of pension rights for the period of committing the crime, which are penalties aimed at protecting public funds and consolidating legal deterrence in major corruption cases.
File Theft of the Century
Updated Iraqi statistics revealed the recovery of huge sums and assets inside and outside Iraq, as the supervisory authorities succeeded in resolving judicial files in 5 countries, which resulted in the recovery of more than $25 million in cash, in addition to the freezing of large foreign accounts and real estate whose value was not declared to prevent their smuggling.
In the case of the theft of the century, the Supreme Judicial Council announced the recovery of $280 million so far, while the recent raids resulted in the seizure of 19 billion Iraqi dinars (more than $16 million) inside the country, in addition to the confiscation of 375 kilograms of gold.
In the case of the Baghdad Municipality in Lebanon, the authorities recovered more than $3 million from embezzled bank accounts, with the continuation of the procedures for transferring the ownership of a luxury housing unit in Beirut to the Iraqi government, in addition to the issuance of a verdict to confiscate 22 properties in Baghdad and Turkey belonging to the former director general of taxes and his wife, and to impose fines exceeding 32 billion dinars, in addition to confiscating their balances in Kuwaiti and Turkish banks within the file of the General Tax Authority.
The Recovery Department confirms that it has recovered about half of the defendants who fled the country, noting that the next phase will witness the exposure of additional assets and large heads involved in corruption cases.