Iraqi criminal court to fight corruption issued two verdicts against former governor of Nineveh for imprisonment for five years for baseless projects, the Supreme Judiciary Council said in a statement.
Two cases were filed against Nawfal al-Agwb, ex-governor of Nineveh. He was convicted guilty in the first case and faces three years and two years for the second case, the statement added.
Agwb was convicted for projects of cleaning and renovation of government offices which did not exist from 2017 to 2019.
On March 24, 2019, the Iraqi parliament at the request of Iraqi former PM Adil Abdul-Mahdi decided to dismiss Nawfal Hammadi al-Agub and his two deputies on charges of corruption.
The decision came days after an overloaded ferry sank in the Tigris River near Mosul leaving dozens dead.
The federal integrity commission said on October 21, 2020 Agwb was arrested after approval of arrest memorandum by special court for corruption cases. The commission had issued an order on July 13, 2020, to question the ex-governor as head of a committee for distribution of residential plots in Nineveh with all members of the committee for violation of duty tasks.
“His capture was unexpected because the order was to question not arrest him,” a relative of Agwb anonymously told KirkukNow in October 2020 when he was arrested. Ex-governor was accused of several cases by integrity commission, one of it was embezzlement of 76 billion Iraqi Dinars ($60 million),” he added.
Nineveh appeal court issued an arrest order to Agwb according to item 315 and 341 which states “imprisonment for any civil servant tasked for a mission in case of embezzlement of public fund, hiding money, registered document or anything found in his possession.”
The administrative posts in Ninewa were distributed according to a political consensus in 2013 among the different factions in the provincial council.
According to the agreement, the post of governor was given to a Sunni Arab component, while the post of first deputy was held by a Kurd and the second deputy also by a Sunni Arab.
The war-torn northern province of Nineveh was under ISIS control from 2014 to 2017 and still suffers lack of essential services and devastated infrastructure, while thousands of its residents who were displaced during the war are unable to return home.
