Nineveh court jails oil employee 10 years for embezzling public funds

NINEVEH — A Nineveh court has sentenced an Oil Ministry employee to 10 years in prison for embezzling more than 1.17 billion dinars (about $889,600 at the official exchange rate) from public funds, Iraq’s Federal Commission of Integrity said Tuesday.

The commission said the employee worked at a government fuel station in Nineveh and embezzled 1,174,287,000 dinars in proceeds from fuel sales at the station in August and September 2025.

The Nineveh Criminal Court issued the in-person ruling after finding the evidence sufficient for conviction, the commission said.

The sentence follows last week’s anti-corruption operation, in which officials announced the arrest of dozens of current and former lawmakers, political figures and officials. State media said the arrests followed confessions by detained former Deputy Oil Minister Adnan al-Jumaili.

Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi, visiting the Interior Ministry on Saturday, reaffirmed the campaign, calling the ministry the government’s “frontline institution in the fight against corruption” and saying there would be “no tolerance for any corrupt individual, regardless of affiliation.” He said he had directed the Integrity Commission, the Federal Board of Supreme Audit and the security forces to keep pursuing corruption cases.

Iraqi authorities seized another 25 billion dinars (about $18.9 million at the official rate), $1 million and about 5 kilograms of gold in the case against Jumaili, the Supreme Judicial Council said Monday, bringing the total recovered in the investigation to 127 billion dinars (about $96 million at the official rate) and $24 million.