Four held in Iraq’s corruption sweep get court dates from Monday

BAGHDAD — Lawmaker Ziad al-Janabi will go on trial Monday, the first of four court dates over the next two weeks for figures detained in Iraq’s anti-corruption campaign, a judicial source told 964media on Sunday.

Hussein Talib, head of the state-owned Oil Products Distribution Company, who is affiliated with Ammar al-Hakim’s Hikma Movement, is due in court Tuesday, the source said. The court is set to decide the case of Azm Alliance leader Muthanna al-Samarrai on Thursday.

A verdict in the case of Mohammed al-Sayhoud, a member of former Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani’s Reconstruction and Development Coalition, will be announced on Nov. 8, the source added.

Janabi, Samarrai and Sayhoud were among 15 people named by state media on June 28, the day of pre-dawn raids in Baghdad’s Green Zone. State media said 47 lawmakers and officials had been arrested and linked the arrests to confessions by detained former Deputy Oil Minister Adnan al-Jumaili. 964media could not verify the list or the total.

Janabi, who heads the National Legislation Party, chaired parliament’s Integrity Committee when he was named. Sayhoud, a former lawmaker, was one of several figures from Sudani’s coalition on the list.

Talib was arrested in Baghdad on July 9, hours before he was due to be sworn in as a replacement lawmaker for Hakim’s Alliance of Nation State Forces, Shafaq News reported at the time. His company supplies gasoline and other fuel to stations across Iraq.

Samarrai is being tried by the Central Anti-Corruption Criminal Court under Article 319 of the Penal Code, which covers public officials who profit from works or contracts connected to their posts. The court heard witness testimony on Oct. 19 and adjourned the trial to Oct. 29.

Since the June raids, courts have jailed four lawmakers, former lawmaker Talal al-Zobaie and former Deputy Oil Minister Ali Maarij al-Bahadli for seven years each for illicit enrichment.