On Thursday, the Parliamentary Integrity Committee reported that the Iraqi judiciary is negotiating with its American equivalent to arrest people suspected of the “deal of the century.”
According to Alia Nassif, the committee’s deputy head, “there is a move by the Iraqi Integrity and Judicial Commission, in coordination with the International Police, Interpol, for the purpose of arresting people accused of stealing tax secretaries, which was called the deal of the century.”
“The Iraqi judiciary is conducting negotiations with its American counterpart to arrest those accused of stealing the century with the aim of handing them over to Iraq and prosecuting them,” she continued, stressing that “two of the defendants hold American citizenship.”
Earlier, the head of the Iraqi Integrity Commission, Judge Haider Hanoun, urged the United States and the United Kingdom to extradite the director of the former Prime Minister’s office, Mustafa Al-Kadhimi, the head of the Intelligence Service, and the former Minister of Finance for their roles in the theft of tax secretariats, dubbed the “theft of the century” in the media.
The head of the Integrity Commission urged the authorities in the United States of America and the United Kingdom to carry out the arrest warrants issued against them in line with Article 316 of the modified Iraqi Penal Code No. 111 of 1969.
He also demanded that the UAE extradite a wanted man and his wife, both former employees of the Federal Integrity Commission with Turkish citizenship, who are currently residing on its territory.
Last October, the “theft of the century” case was published for the first time, involving former high officials and businessmen, and it provoked considerable resentment in Iraq, which has seen major rallies in recent years calling for an end to corruption.
The “theft of the century” became the talk of the Iraqi street, political circles, and others, spreading beyond Iraq and being reported by Arab and Western media.
The “theft of the century” is symbolized by the loss of 3.7 trillion Iraqi dinars (about $2.5 billion) from tax secretariat funds, which was exposed by numerous interested parties roughly two months before the conclusion of the previous government’s term, which was led by Mustafa al-Sadr.
