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Iraq's Central Anti-Corruption Criminal Court has sentenced two lawmakers to seven years in prison each for illicit enrichment, tying their hidden wealth to an ongoing corruption probe into a senior oil official.
Alia Nassif Jassem Aziz Al Obaidi, known as Alia Nassif, an MP representing Baghdad who built a public profile on anti-corruption rhetoric, previously served as the first vice-chair of parliament’s Integrity Committee. She was transferred to the Finance Committee earlier this year and arrested on corruption charges on June 28, according to Iraq’s official news agency.
MP Ashwaq Salem Hassan has also been linked to the same corruption probe.
The current chairman of the Integrity Committee, Taha Al-Difai, told OCCRP that the sentences were based on the interrogation of detained Deputy Oil Minister Adnan al-Jumaili by an investigating judge. According to Al-Difai, al-Jumaili admitted to having illicit dealings with the two lawmakers.
Investigators subsequently uncovered unexplained cash and real estate wealth that neither woman had reported on their mandatory financial disclosures, which officials must file within three months of taking office.
“This indicated an illicit accumulation of wealth at the expense of public funds,” Al-Difai said.
The Integrity Commission said the court ordered Nassif to return 14 billion Iraqi dinars ($10.68 million) and an additional $12 million in illicit earnings. Judges also fined her an equivalent amount, bringing her total financial penalty to approximately $45 million.
Similarly, Hassan was ordered to return 2.11 billion dinars ($1.6 million) and $2.92 million, plus an equivalent fine, bringing her total penalty to roughly $9 million.
Authorities have not publicly released the full details of al-Jumaili’s statements implicating the two lawmakers, nor a list of the ill-acquired assets that formed the basis of the court’s decisions.
The judgments also included three-year sentences for each lawmaker for concealing information on their mandatory financial disclosure forms. Because the court applied only the harsher punishment, the final prison term for each woman remains seven years. The Integrity Commission said it retained the right to seek further damages after the judgments become final.
The convictions are part of a sweeping anti-corruption campaign that has been rocking Iraq since April, which also saw the June arrest of Ziad al-Janabi, who previously chaired the Integrity Committee.
The irony of Nassif’s situation did not go unnoticed by the Iraqi public. Her sentencing drew a wave of comments highlighting her previous public statements against government corruption.
Nassif and Hassan did not respond to OCCRP’s requests for comment.
