Man held over 15 million dinar demand to destroy fake case papers

MAYSAN — Investigators arrested a man accused of posing as an officer in Maysan’s Anti-Crime Department and demanding 15 million dinars, about $9,800, to destroy what he said were investigative papers naming a citizen for currency counterfeiting, the Federal Commission of Integrity said Wednesday.

The suspect told the man there was information accusing him of counterfeiting and that a warrant had been issued against him, the commission said. A field team from its Maysan investigation office watched him and, under a judicial warrant, arrested him as he took part of the payment. He was brought before the investigative judge handling integrity cases, who ordered him detained under Decision No. 160 of 1983, as amended.

It is the fourth case this month involving someone selling the ability to make a legal problem disappear. A man was convicted in Najaf on Aug. 10 of impersonating staff in the chief justice’s office to extort officials, a court in Hilla jailed a man for three years this week for claiming to work for an oversight body, and a police officer in Nineveh was arrested over an alleged $15,000 bribe to alter a detainee’s statement.