Azm leader Muthanna al-Samarrai jailed 6 years over refinery contracts

BAGHDAD — A court on Thursday sentenced Azm Alliance leader Muthanna al-Samarrai, a lawmaker, to six years in prison for profiting from public contracts at two state refining companies, the Federal Commission of Integrity said.

The court ordered Samarrai to repay 30 billion dinars (about $20 million at the official rate). The commission said he made the money as a middleman in contracts of the North Refineries Company, which runs the Baiji refinery, and the Basra-based South Refineries Company.

In a separate session the same day, lawmaker Ziad al-Janabi, head of the National Legislation Party, was sentenced to five years of rigorous detention and ordered to repay 4 billion dinars (about $2.6 million) that the commission said he gained from North Refineries Company contracts.

Rigorous detention is the heavier of the two forms of jail term in Iraq’s Penal Code and runs from three months to five years. Sentences of more than five years, such as Samarrai’s, are classed as imprisonment.

The verdicts came two days after the commission said a court had sentenced Hussein Talib, director general of the state-owned Oil Products Distribution Company, to eight years and ordered him to repay 55 billion dinars (about $36 million) for profiting from North Refineries Company contracts.

All three were arrested after the detention of former Deputy Oil Minister Adnan al-Jumaili, and several more court sessions are still to be held to decide the fate of other defendants, a source in the commission’s Kirkuk office told 964media.

Samarrai and Janabi were detained in the June 28 pre-dawn raids in Baghdad’s Green Zone, known as Dawn Strike. They were among 15 people state media named that day from what it said were 47 lawmakers and officials arrested on the strength of Jumaili’s confessions. 964media could not verify the list or the total.

Samarrai was tried before the Central Anti-Corruption Criminal Court under Article 319 of the Penal Code. The article covers officials who profit, directly or through others, from public works, contracts or supply deals they had a hand in preparing, awarding, carrying out or overseeing. The court heard witness testimony on Oct. 19 after summoning detained witnesses including Jumaili and North Refineries Company employees.

After Samarrai’s arrest, the Azm Alliance, a Sunni coalition, urged respect for judicial procedures and said the case should not be prejudged or used in political or media disputes.

Janabi chaired parliament’s Integrity Committee when he was named in June. Talib, who is affiliated with Ammar al-Hakim’s Hikma Movement, was arrested in Baghdad on July 8, hours before he was due to be sworn in as a replacement lawmaker.

The commission did not say whether the verdicts can be appealed.

Jumaili, who was also director general of the North Refineries Company, was arrested on May 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.

A verdict in the case of former lawmaker Mohammed al-Sayhoud, also named in June, is due on Nov. 8, a judicial source told 964media on Sunday.