The Iraqi authorities have for several months been carrying out a campaign of arrests of officials and businessmen implicated in large-scale corruption in the country and in particular arrested Saad Hamid Kambash at the end of March. But this head of a Sunni staffing office fled his place of detention on Tuesday, April 18.
With our correspondent in Baghdad, Marie-Charlotte Rupee
Arrested on March 21, Saad Hamid Kambash was sentenced last week to four years in prison for administrative and financial corruption, the amount of which is estimated at tens of millions of dollars. But on the evening of Tuesday April 18, the former head of the Sunni staffing office escaped from the police station where he was being held.
According to the spokesman of the commander-in-chief of the armies, his escape took place after Iftar [cérémonie et repas mettant fin au jeûne musulman, NDLR] and a visit from his sister, herself a Member of Parliament. Two vehicles were waiting for him outside and he was reportedly assisted by three people. The authorities announce that they have arrested all the people in charge of the detention center to investigate possible corruption.
Corruption is a plague in iraq. At the end of 2022, the scandal dubbed “The robbery of the century revealed that 2.5 billions of dollars had been stolen from Iraqi taxes. And despite a large number of arrests of officials and businessmen since then, only 10 % of money returned.
This new case is symptomatic of the situation in the country. Saad Hamid Kambash is actively wanted.