Former Iraqi trade minister Abdel Falah al-Sudani was arrested on Saturday after his plane was dramatically ordered back to Baghdad as he tried to flee the country in the wake of a graft scandal.
Al-Sudani was on board a flight to Dubai, which authorities turned back to the capital so that he could be arrested, said Sabah al-Saedi, head of parliament’s corruption and integrity commission.
“The minister was trying to escape from justice and was headed to the United Arab Emirates,” al-Saedi said.
“After some phone calls were made to judicial authorities and the airport, the airplane was turned back and the minister arrested,” he said.
On Monday, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s office said that al-Sudani had resigned amid allegations of corruption and embezzlement linked to the nation’s food assistance program.
“An arrest warrant was issued against the minister under the charge of corruption,” al-Saedi said. “He is the main person responsible for corruption in the ministry.”
A commission official later told state television that starting yesterday “procedures would be taken according to the law” against al-Sudani.
The trade ministry operates a nearly six-billion dollar annual budget that provides a monthly public food distribution program for Iraqis. It also manages the import of grain, seeds and construction materials.
A security official said al-Sudani was on Jupiter Airlines PHW604 over the southern Iraqi city of Basra when Saturday’s drama unfolded.
“At 1pm the minister took the plane going to Dubai but representatives from the commission arrived at the airport with police shortly after,” the official said on condition of anonymity.
“They contacted the plane and forced it to turn back. When it landed security personnel arrested the minister,” he said.
Al-Sudani, a member of al-Maliki’s Shiite Dawa faction, had already been questioned by parliament over claims relating to imports for the food rationing program.
Al-Maliki vowed to root out graft in the government, after al-Sudani, who was accused of importing expired commodities, mainly sugar; procuring illegal contracts and failing to fight corruption in his ministry, quit.
“We will institute reforms ... and we will search for the truth,” al-Maliki told reporters on Wednesday after talks with senior trade ministry officials.
“We will not stand with arms folded in the face of corruption. We will pursue those who are corrupt and bring them before the courts,” he said, while placing the ministry under his authority.
AL-Maliki said on Wednesday he was immediately instituting measures to fight graft in Iraq.
“We will recruit new executives to replace those who are not qualified and we urge those in charge of purchases to sign contracts with large global companies directly rather than through intermediaries,” he said.
The Commission on Public Integrity, tasked with fighting corruption in Iraq, announced on Wednesday that 997 officials were being investigated for alleged graft, including 53 people ranked as directors general or higher.
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