Former Baqubah mayor sentenced to five years over land forgery

BAQUBAH — Iraq’s Integrity Commission announced Sunday that a court sentenced a former Baqubah mayor to five years in prison after convicting him of forging a property allocation in violation of legal regulations.

In a statement, the commission said “the Diyala Criminal Court, First Panel, issued an in absentia ruling sentencing the convicted fugitive Saad Nasr Alwan, former director of the Baqubah Municipality, to five years of rigorous imprisonment for intentionally causing damage to public funds, breaching his official duties, and allocating a property in one of the districts contrary to regulations and without a duly issued allocation record.”

The statement said the case details show that the Baqubah Municipality Directorate had allocated a plot of land to “a deceased person from the journalists’ category under an official allocation record,” but that when the deceased’s wife later visited the directorate to complete registration, it was discovered that “the directorate had allocated the plot to another person, in violation of rules and instructions.”

The commission said the court, after reviewing the evidence and proof, including statements by the municipality’s legal representative and an administrative investigation that established negligence, “decided to convict him under the provisions of Article 340 of the Penal Code No. 111 of 1969, in conjunction with Articles 49, 48 and 47.”

It added that the court ordered the prison sentence, issued a general arrest warrant, froze the convicted person’s movable and immovable assets, and granted the affected party the right to seek compensation once the ruling becomes final.

In recent months, Iraqi courts have continued to issue prison sentences in corruption and financial misconduct cases involving former officials. On March 27, 2025, the Federal Integrity Commission said the Hilla Misdemeanor Court sentenced Ahmed Mohsen Nasser, the former director of municipalities in Babil governorate, to two years in prison in absentia for violating his official duties and causing damage to public funds, ordering the seizure of his assets and granting the complainants the right to seek compensation once the verdict becomes final.

Other anti-corruption rulings have included a 10-year in absentia sentence handed down on Sept. 21, 2024, to the former chairman and board members of the Najaf Airport Board of Directors for corruption related to a runway contract, and a six-year sentence in 2024 to two former managers of Kirkuk’s Al-Rasheed Bank for financial misconduct that caused harm to the institution.