Iraq freezes assets of former oil minister

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A Baghdad court on Sunday ruled to freeze the assets of the country’s former oil minister over charges of corruption and receiving bribery, reported Iraqi state media (INA).

“The al-Karkh investigation court, specialized in integrity cases, has ruled to freeze the movable and immovable assets of former Oil Minister Ihsan Abdul Jabbar, on account of exploiting his position and receiving bribes from several investors with contracts with the oil ministry,” INA cited an unnamed judicial court as saying.

The Iraqi parliament in October of 2022 voted to remove Abdul Jabbar from his position as acting finance minister, a position he assumed in August following the resignation of the previous minister Ali Allawi. 

Zahra al-Bachari, head of the Iraqi parliament’s transport and communications committee, told Rudaw last October that a total of 68 “major corruption cases” have been filed against Abdul Jabbar, demanding that he be prevented from traveling outside Iraq.

The former oil minister has been accused of “tampering with public funds” and “obtaining several passports from several foreign countries in return for services he provided for those countries,” according to Bachari.

Mustafa Sanad, an MP in the Iraqi parliament, said that among Abdul Jabbar’s frozen assets were his house in Basra, his brother’s house, and 14 apartments registered under the names of his relatives.

Rampant corruption plagues all levels of the Iraqi state. The country ranks as the joint tenth most corrupt nation in the world according to the Transparency International annual corruption perceptions index.

Since assuming the Iraqi premiership in October, Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani has frequently reiterated his cabinet’s commitment to battling the endemic corruption that plagues the Iraqi state, and has not shied away from sacking numerous officials in high-level positions.