ERBIL, Kurdistan Region—The Iraqi government has put out an arrest warrant for the head of the bank of Jalawla in northern Diyala on charges of “neglect of duty” and the disappearance of billions of Iraqi dinars, charges denied and described as discriminatory by the accused.
Abdulhameed Rashid, head of Rafidain Bank in Jalawla told Rudaw on Friday that the Iraqi government wants him to answer for 23.4 billion ($20 million) Iraqi dinars disappeared from his bank which he claims to have handed over to the local police before leaving town in 2014.
Rashid said that he decided to leave Jalawla after two Islamic State (ISIS) suicide bombers blew themselves up in front of the offices of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) that killed and wounded 80 people.
“The day two ISIS suicide bombers targeted the PUK security I started to feel the danger that the town may fall to ISIS and therefore I formally asked Iraq’s central bank to deliver the money to Khanaqin which they didn’t allow,” explained Rashid.
“The same day I counted the money with eight staff members which came up to 23, 487,000,000 dinars,” he added. “Then we locked the doors and handed the bank over to the police.”
The town fell to ISIS militants shortly after.
“The bank has two keys one of which is with me and the other with an Arab employee who due to the war left for Kirkuk with his family,” said Rashid.
Now the Iraqi government through the integrity commission wants Rashid arrested to answer for the disappearance of the cash which he says is unfair and discriminatory.
He asks why the heads of the banks of Mosul, Fallujah and Tikrit all of which fell to ISIS and plundered have not been arrested.
The town of Jalawla saw some of the heaviest battles between Kurdish Peshmerga forces and ISIS in 2014 until its recapture by the end of that year.
The mayor of the town believes that ISIS militants are responsible for the disappearance of the money, adding however that the bank manager should respect the law and his arrest warrant.
“We are one hundred percent certain that ISIS took the money in the Jalawla bank,” Yakoub Yousif told Rudaw. “But if the arrest warrant on Rashid is legal then he must be arrested.”
The arrest warrant for Rashid does not accuse him of stealing the money but rather of “neglect of duty” which caused large amounts of cash to end up in the coffers of ISIS.
“The integrity commission says that he [Rashid] did not take out the money or find a way out when war was breaking wit between ISIS and Peshmerga,’ the mayor said.
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