Man held over scheme posing as judiciary official to extort Najaf officials

NAJAF — A man has been arrested on suspicion of posing as a staff member in the office of Supreme Judicial Council President Faiq Zaidan and as a member of the prime minister’s Central Anti-Corruption Committee in order to extort senior officials in the governorate, the judiciary said Monday.

The Najaf Investigative Court said the suspect telephoned the director of the governorate’s Real Estate Registration Directorate, claimed he was in a meeting with Zaidan collecting signatures on official documents, and told the director his name appeared on a list of arrest warrants, offering to have the measures cancelled in return for money, according to the judiciary’s media office.

He is accused of using the same method against the director of Najaf International Airport and the head of the governorate’s electricity distribution directorate. The court said evidence was gathered before the arrest, that the suspect’s judicial statement has been recorded and that the case will go to trial.

It is at least the third such warning this year. In January the Supreme Judicial Council said people were impersonating staff in Zaidan’s office and approaching political and executive officials for personal gain. On July 3, the judge investigating the case against former Deputy Oil Minister Adnan al-Jumaili warned that people were contacting business owners and falsely telling them their names had come up in that inquiry, urging anyone approached to pay nothing and report the contact to the court.

The Jumaili investigation is the centerpiece of an anti-corruption campaign the government launched in late June, which state media says has led to the arrest of dozens of current and former officials, lawmakers and political figures.