ERBIL – The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is taking legal action against a former member of parliament for allegedly accusing elements within the KRG of funding the Islamic State. A leaked document from the KRG interior ministry indicated its officials were filing a suit against Burhan Rashid, a former MP of the Change Movement (Gorran), for what the ministry calls “false information” provided by the former MP which could “damage the nation’s security.” The leaked document said Rashid has publically accused KRG institutions of facilitating the flow of funds and cash to ISIS militants in Iraq. According to the document the former MP had publically said that “a Kurdish political party in Erbil has supplied the IS militants with weapons and ammunition in exchange for oil.” The document said the Kurdistan’s Region’s chief prosecutor had already brought a lawsuit before a court in the city of Suleimani. “I have not been notified of the court case,” Rashid told Rudaw in a phone interview from abroad. “I based my statements on an already published Russian intelligence report, so I find it odd that they take action against me instead,” he added. The reported case follows a warning by the US treasury that Turkish and Kurdish middlemen trading in Islamic State (ISIS) oil will face US sanctions. US officials have discreetly criticised the illicit Turkish and Kurdish trade in oil from ISIS, but comments last week by US Treasury Undersecretary David Cohen were the clearest warning so far. “Last month, ISIL was selling oil at substantially discounted prices to a variety of middlemen, including some from Turkey,” Cohen said. “It also appears that some of the oil emanating from territory where ISIL operates has been sold to Kurds in Iraq, and then resold into Turkey.”
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