Former MP jailed six months for extortion

BAGHDAD — A court has sentenced former lawmaker Kazem al-Sayadi to six months in prison for extortion, an informed source told 964media, 13 days after his arrest.

No details of the case were given — no court named, no victim, no amount and no account of what he was found to have done. Security forces arrested him on Aug. 17 on judicial orders, senior sources told the Iraqi News Agency at the time.

The sentence is the lightest handed down in the run of convictions since the anti-corruption campaign began. Courts have jailed Deputy Oil Minister Ali Maarij al-Bahadli and former lawmaker Talal al-Zobaie for seven years each this weekend, politician Yazan Mishaan Rakad al-Jubouri for five years in June, and sitting lawmakers Mohammed Nasser Dali al-Karbouli and Hasnain Qasim Mohammed al-Khafaji for two years each in July.

Authorities have not said whether Sayadi’s case is connected to that campaign, which has produced arrests including Azm Alliance leader Muthanna al-Samarrai and lawmakers Ziad al-Janabi, Bahaa al-Nouri and Alia Nassif.