The judiciary issues new arrest warrants against officials of Al-Kazemi’s government in the “theft of the century” case
The judiciary issues new arrest warrants against officials of Al-Kazemi’s government in the “theft of the century” case
2023-01-18 00:55
Shafaq News/ The Supreme Judicial Council, the judge, stated, on Wednesday, that new arrest warrants were issued against officials in the former federal government, regarding the theft of tax secretariat funds, what is known as the “theft of the century”.
A statement issued by the Supreme Judicial Council stated that its president, Judge Faeq Zaidan, met today with the head of the Integrity Commission, Haider Hanoun, and the first judges in the investigation courts specialized in examining cases of the Integrity Commission in Rusafa and Karkh, Judge Iyad Mohsen Damad, and Judge Diaa Jaafar, and the head of the support team for the Supreme Commission. Anti-corruption Abdul Karim Abdul Fadel Al-Basri.
The statement indicated that the meeting discussed “submitting ideas and proposals to the relevant ministries to amend contracts in which the existence of unfairness to the state and harm to the citizen is indicated, in a way that guarantees the preservation of public money and at the same time that the parties to the contract are not harmed.” The meeting also discussed continuing efforts to recover state funds obtained from corruption crimes administration according to legal mechanisms.
Judge Diaa Jaafar gave a briefing on the steps that the Second Karkh Investigation Court began to take with the parties to the smart card contract to reconsider the terms of the contract concluded to remove the injustice of the rights of the Rafidain and Rashid Bank, and for the aforementioned company to pay the amount of taxes owed by it, amounting to approximately 15 billion dinars.
He also explained to the meeting the continuation of the procedures for recovering tax secretariat funds according to an agreed map, in addition to the issuance of new arrest warrants against a number of defendants linked to parties that held positions in the previous government that had a role in that case and in light of the developments in the investigation.
The “theft of the century” became the talk of the Iraqi street, political circles, and others, until its echo spread outside Iraq and was covered by Arab and Western media.
The “theft of the century” is represented by the disappearance of 3.7 trillion Iraqi dinars (about two and a half billion dollars) from tax secretariat funds, and it was revealed by several concerned parties about two months before the end of the term of the previous government headed by Mustafa Al-Kazemi.
Following the discovery of the theft, the Commission of Integrity and the Judicial Authority moved to investigate the case, and several judicial arrest warrants were issued. The first arrested was businessman Nour Zuhair, and he was imprisoned, in addition to others, along with judicial decisions to confiscate the movable and immovable funds of those involved in the theft as well as their families.
The case file is still open to the Iraqi judiciary to reach all its leads, as well as ways to recover the money that was smuggled out of Iraq, according to a number of deputies and politicians.
shafaq.com
