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Iraq
Saad Kumbesh, former head of the Sunni Endowment Council, escaped from an Iraqi jail on April 18, 2023. File photo: Sunni Endowment Council
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A former Iraqi official who was imprisoned for corruption, escaped from jail on Tuesday evening. An advisor to the prime minister said they will crack down on prisons that have become “five-star hotels.”
Saad Kumbesh, former head of the Sunni Endowment Council, was sentenced to four years in prison on April 12 as part of a corruption case related to buying a hotel in Erbil, according to the integrity council.
The interior ministry announced they are searching for Kumbesh, including at his home in Diyala province, and are investigating his escape.
Interior Minister Abdul-Amir al-Shammari ordered the arrest of police officers and detention guards as part of an investigation into the escape, according to state media.
The prime minister’s media advisor, Hisham al-Rekabi, reacted to the news on Twitter, saying there will be a “huge revolution” of how senior officials accused of corruption are detained. “The corrupt mechanisms that have turned the detention centres into five-star hotels for the corrupt people will be removed,” he said.
From 2020 to 2022, Kumbesh headed the Sunni Endowment Council, a special institution that manages and supervises mosques, shrines, and religious sites of the Sunni population of Iraq.
The government has vowed to root out the corruption that is endemic in Iraq’s institution and puts the country among the most corrupt in the world.
Saad Kumbesh, former head of the Sunni Endowment Council, was sentenced to four years in prison on April 12 as part of a corruption case related to buying a hotel in Erbil, according to the integrity council.
The interior ministry announced they are searching for Kumbesh, including at his home in Diyala province, and are investigating his escape.
Interior Minister Abdul-Amir al-Shammari ordered the arrest of police officers and detention guards as part of an investigation into the escape, according to state media.
The prime minister’s media advisor, Hisham al-Rekabi, reacted to the news on Twitter, saying there will be a “huge revolution” of how senior officials accused of corruption are detained. “The corrupt mechanisms that have turned the detention centres into five-star hotels for the corrupt people will be removed,” he said.
From 2020 to 2022, Kumbesh headed the Sunni Endowment Council, a special institution that manages and supervises mosques, shrines, and religious sites of the Sunni population of Iraq.
The government has vowed to root out the corruption that is endemic in Iraq’s institution and puts the country among the most corrupt in the world.
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