Iraqi lawmaker demands legal action against corruption

By Idris Okuducu

SULAYMANIYAH, Iraq

Adil Nuri, an MP from Iraq’s Kurdistan Islamic Movement and spokesman of the Iraqi parliament’s integrity commission, said the country’s former oil minister and other high-ranking officials have been named in corruption cases that his committee has investigated.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi had ordered an urgent investigation into international media claims that some senior officials have been involved in corruption cases involving oil contracts.

“The corruption claims in international media [outlets] about former Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani and some officials are not new developments,” Nuri told Anadolu Agency. “We submitted files to the commission in 2012 about this case. Nine months before that, we asked the oil minister to submit the files of detected corruption to the commission. Unfortunately, until this moment, there have been no developments [in this matter].”

According to Nuri, there is alleged corruption in four bids related to Iraq’s oil ministry, but only one of them has been subject to a detailed investigation.

“[The files show] corruption with a value of $130 million in a bid by the ministry, which was worth $730 million,” he added.

Besides al-Shahristani and other officials being allegedly responsible, Nuri said “some militias are also involved, which has prevented the legal process from being launched.”