ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The Central Bank of Iraq has ordered all governmental financial departments and state-owned banks on Wednesday to “halt or freeze” the accounts of four Iraqi officials who have had US sanctions imposed on them, according to an official Bank order.
Four Iraqis, including two Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF, known as Hashd al-Shaabi in Arabic) leaders were sanctioned by the US Treasury for alleged corruption and human rights abuses, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced on July 18, 2019, in response to corruption and human rights abuses they committed upon “persecuted religious communities struggling to recover from the horrors inflicted on them” by Islamic State (ISIS).
Haitham al-Jabouri, head of Iraqi parliament’s finance committee, warned that these sanctions may precede another, much larger wave of sanctions on Iraqi officials, in an interview with al-Sharqiya News on Wednesday.
“There are some sources confirming that the US Treasury is preparing a list of 67 other Iraqi individuals to put sanctions on,” he said.
In the interview, Jabouri urged Iraqi parliament to condemn the recent sanctions order “to prevent the United States of America from interfering in Iraq's law.”
Iraqi MP Alia Nsaif collected 102 signatures from fellow parliamentarians on Saturday demanding Baghdad’s discussion and condemnation of the sanctions in parliament.
However, hesitant senior Iraqi leaders have failed to issue any response to the sanctions as of yet. Iraq’s Speaker of Parliament Mohammed al-Halbousi chose not to comment on the issue at Saturday’s parliament session, while Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi said that Iraq is currently “investigating” the cause behind the US Treasury sanctions before it issues any response.
The sanctioned individuals include two Hashd al-Shaabi commanders - Rayan al-Kildani, leader of a Christian Hashd faction called the Babylon Movement, and Waad Qado, head of Hashd’s Shabak 30th Brigade.
Kildani and his militia have been accused of prisoners’ rights violations, the systematic looting of homes, the selling of confiscated farmland and the impeding of the return of internally displaced persons (IDPs) to the Nineveh Plains.
Members of the local population allege that Qado’s 30th Brigade has committed physical intimidation, extortion, robbery, kidnapping, and rape, and impeded the return of Christians.
Former Nineveh governor Nawfal Hamadi and former Saladin governor and current MP Ahmed al-Jabouri, both of whom are accused of corruption, also face sanctions.
An April 2019 investigation by Iraq’s Integrity Commission found almost $64 million had been embezzled from Nineveh’s coffers by employees close to Hamadi.
In protests organized and attended by current Saladin governor Ammar Jabr al-Jabouri, supporters of Ahmed al-Jabouri chanted in defence of their “legendary leader” in the city of Saladin on Monday.
