ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Fifteen former Iraqi ministers are among nearly 1,800 officials indicted for corruption this year, Iraq’s Commission of Integrity has said.
Commission chief Hassan al-Yassiri told reporters on Friday that arrest warrants had been issued for the accused and that the international police (INTERPOL) had been notified.
Yassiri said that 15 former ministers, 122 senior officials and 1,668 civil servants had been indicted for stealing public funds, embezzlement, bribery, corruption and other charges.
The Al-Araby al-Jadeed news website quoted Yassiri as saying that the number was “for this year alone.” He said he hoped that Iraqi authorities would act on the warrants to arrest the accused, and that INTERPOL had been notified of the names.
Yassiri said that 889 billion Iraqi dinars (more than $768 million) had been confirmed missing from the national treasury, and that larger amounts were still to be investigated.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi said after taking office in August last year that $45 billion was missing from the 2014 budget, when his predecessor Nouri al-Maliki had been in charge.
