ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraqi authorities on Tuesday recovered roughly 19 billion Iraqi dinars (about $14.5 million) in a case involving embezzled funds from the national carrier Iraqi Airways, Baghdad's judiciary announced, as an ongoing anti-corruption crackdown has, since Sunday, netted tens of millions of dollars as well as tens of senior Iraqi officials and politicians.
The investigative court in Baghdad's Rusafa district “recovered 19 billion Iraqi dinars on Tuesday,” Iraq's Supreme Judicial Council - the highest judicial authority for the country's ordinary court system - said in a statement, adding that “the sum was recovered as part of investigations into a financial corruption case involving tampering with deposit records of funds belonging to Iraqi Airways.”
The statement comes days after unconfirmed reports circulated about the arrest of Manaf Abdel-Monem, director general of Iraqi Airways, last Monday. The claim first surfaced when Iraqi lawmaker Alaa al-Haidari wrote in a post on Facebook that Abdel-Monem was arrested on charges of embezzlement.
Importantly, the Supreme Judicial Council's statement came a day after large sums of state funds and several properties were seized in a case involving the deputy minister of oil for distribution affairs, Ali Maarij al-Bahadly, who was sanctioned by the United States in May.
Preliminary investigations led to the seizure of "a large amount of cash" amounting to "$11 million US dollars and four billion Iraqi dinars [around $3 million], in addition to the seizure of several properties," an investigating judge from the Central Anti-Corruption Criminal Court said in a statement Monday.
The seizures are part of Operation Dawn, an expanded anti-corruption campaign launched under Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi's orders on Sunday, which has so far led to the arrest of at least 21 suspects.
Munir Haddad, a prominent Iraqi judge and legal advisor to Prime Minister Zaidi, told Rudaw's Ziyad Ismail on Monday that "those accused of stealing public funds and looting Iraq's wealth are being prosecuted under the Iraqi Penal Code, including the Anti-Money Laundering Law and laws governing crimes against public property."
He pledged that "neither the judiciary nor the government will stop at recovering the stolen funds," emphasizing that the Baghdad government remains "committed to fighting corruption and holding the corrupt to account."
“No one will be spared, regardless of their position or status,” Haddad stressed.
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