Electricity distribution company’s director general jailed for seven years

BAGHDAD — The Central Anti-Corruption Criminal Court sentenced Alaa Samir Rashid, director general of the Electricity Ministry’s Central Electricity Distribution Company, to seven years in prison for illicit enrichment, the Federal Commission of Integrity said — the second conviction at the same company in under three weeks.

Rashid was ordered to return 5.524 billion dinars, about $4.18 million at the official rate, along with $5.539 million, and fined the value of those gains again, the commission said. The seizure of his movable and immovable assets was upheld, and the commission said it would be entitled to seek compensation for damages once the ruling is final.

The company’s director of financial affairs was sentenced to three years for illicit gains on Aug. 28, ordered to repay 1.17 billion dinars and $203,000 with a matching fine, and barred from release until both were paid.

It is the fourth case against electricity officials since August. The same court jailed the director general of the state-owned General Company for Electric Power Production in the Middle Euphrates and his office director for six years each for bribery, over payments to release money owed to a contractor. Investigators searching properties belonging to detained Deputy Electricity Minister Khalid Ghazai Atiyah found $5.8 million in cash, 1.175 billion dinars and gold last month.

The convictions come after a summer in which generation covered under half of peak demand and protests over supply spread across the country, with at least 52 members of the security forces wounded in clashes in Kut on Aug. 10. Generation reached 24,700 MW this month against peak summer demand the ministry puts at 55,000 to 60,000, and officials estimate that more than half of what is produced is lost before reaching a paying customer.