ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraqi authorities have issued an arrest warrant for a political advisor of a former prime minister, the federal integrity commission announced in a statement on Sunday. The al-Karkh investigation court issued an arrest and search warrant for the former advisor on the charge of “refusing to submit financial disclosure without a legitimate excuse,” read the statement. “The court decided to investigate the suspect’s place of residence, in order to implement the issued order against him,” added the statement. The commission statement does not identify the accused, but Iraqi media outlets have named him as Mushriq Abbas, political advisor for the former prime minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi. In March, a court in Baghdad issued arrest warrants for Abbas and three other officials from Kadhimi’s team on corruption charges in connection with an investigation into looting of public funds. Iraq is one of the most corrupt countries in the world, according to Transparency International, which ranked it 157 out of 180 nations 2022. An investigation by the finance ministry in October concluded that $2.5 billion in tax funds were stolen from the General Commission of Taxes’ account at Baghdad's Rafidain Bank between September 2021 and August 2022. Hundreds of millions of the embezzled money was recovered, Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani announced in October, pledging that, “We will not leave out anyone or any name or any party involved, regardless of who they are, and the parties involved will be announced after completing the investigation.” In 2020, the integrity commission announced it had prevented the “waste of 1.25 trillion Iraqi dinars.”
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