Iraq’s Federal Commission of Integrity has ordered the arrest of several Kirkuk officials on different charges.
The arrest order includes the head of Kirkuk’s Education Department, Abid Ali Hussein.
The Commission published a statement on 21 July 2020 on its website, part of which reads: “The investigative judge has ordered the arrest of the head of [Kirkuk’s] Education Department and members of the committee in charge of determining prices.”
Another part of statement reads: “The order is issued due to the waste of public wealth designated for maintenance and reparation of equipment belonging to the Education [Department] of in the [Kirkuk] province.”
The PR person for Kirkuk’s Education Department – who declined his name be published – talked to KirkukNow, denying the existence of an arrest warrant and stressed that Abid Ali Hussein is in Baghdad for several days resolving the issue of new employments.
He further explained that police had gone to the department’s headquarters, but that it was to arrest another official, not the head of the department.
The arrest order is based on Article 340 of Iraq’s Penal Code, which stipulates: “Any public official or agent who wilfully inflicts damage on the property or interests of the authority for which he works or to which he is associated by virtue of his position or on another's property that has been entrusted to him is punishable by a term of imprisonment not exceeding 7 years or by detention.”
The Integrity Commission has previously issued an arrest order for the former head of electricity distribution department and five engineers employed by the same department.
We haven’t received any official documents from Integrity [Commission] on this issue
Qais Razwani, Public Relations head of Electricity Department of the North, told KirkukNow: “We haven’t received any official documents from Integrity [Commission] on this issue.”
The Commission’s latest statement also includes mentioning an order for the mayor of Kirkuk’s City Centre to be interrogated on corruption charges.
The Integrity Commission declared in July that a real estate worth 5 billion Iraqi Dinars (about $4.2 million) was confiscated and its ownership was returned to the state, after the arrest of five individuals on corruption charges.
