Man convicted of impersonating chief justice’s office to extort officials in Najaf

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

The Najaf Criminal Court, which handles integrity cases, passed three sentences of six years each. The council said the man had used the false identity to demand money from people convicted of corruption offenses, telling them he could have proceedings against them cancelled.

He was arrested on July 27, two weeks before the conviction. The judiciary said he telephoned the head of Najaf’s Real Estate Registration Directorate, claimed to be in a meeting with Zaidan collecting signatures on official documents, told him his name appeared on a list of arrest warrants and offered to have the measures cancelled for money. He was accused of using the same approach on the director of Najaf International Airport and the head of the governorate’s electricity distribution directorate.

The case sits alongside a wider anti-corruption campaign that has run since the arrest of former Deputy Oil Minister Adnan al-Jumaili in May, covering government contracts, money laundering and misuse of public funds. Investigators have itemized recoveries of about 82 billion dinars and $131.6 million in cash along with 424 kilograms of gold. In July the judge investigating the Jumaili case warned that people were contacting business owners and falsely telling them their names had come up in the inquiry.