Iraqi officials, including lawmakers, arrested on corruption charges in overnight raid

BAGHDAD (AP) — Dozens of Iraqi political officials have been arrested on corruption charges, Iraq’s state-run Iraqi News Agency reported Sunday.

It said the arrests were based on a statement made by former Deputy Minister of Oil Adnan al-Jumaili, who was arrested last month, and “included members of Parliament whose immunity had been lifted.”

Iraqi security forces sealed off all entrances to the capital’s heavily fortified Green Zone early Sunday and carried out raids inside the compound that houses key government institutions and foreign embassies.

The state news agency later reported that 47 people had been arrested in the corruption probe, but it was not clear if all of them were detained Sunday or if some of them had been arrested earlier.

It released the names of 15 arrestees, including 12 current lawmakers, one former legislator, a former adviser to former Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, and another high-ranking oil ministry official. Some of the arrested lawmakers came from al-Sudani’s Shiite political bloc and others from the Azm Alliance, an influential Sunni party.

The specific accusations against them were not immediately clear.

Al-Sudani’s bloc won the largest share of seats in November’s parliamentary elections, but he ultimately stepped aside amid a deadlock in the Coordination Framework — a coalition of Shiite parties allied with Iran that brought him to power — over their preferred candidate for premier.

Al-Sudani was replaced by Ali al-Zaidi, a businessman and political newcomer, who emerged as a consensus candidate and received the blessing of the United States.

The arrests are likely to have ripple effects across Iraq’s fractured political landscape, where accusations of corruption frequently intersect with rivalries over power and influence.

Diaa Jaafar, the investigative judge of Iraq’s central anti-corruption court, said in a statement that the investigation into al-Jumaili began in October “following the court’s receipt of a number of reports alleging that several candidates had spent exorbitant sums of money to support their election campaigns, exploiting state resources and with the support of influential figures in the previous government.”

He said the investigation uncovered the involvement of a group of legislators in “exploiting state resources for electioneering and benefiting from government contracts, directly or indirectly, to obtain commissions and personal advantages for themselves and others.”

Jaafar said Parliament Speaker Haibet Al-Halbousi lifted the immunity of the members of parliament implemented in the case and the arrest warrants against them were then executed.