SENIOR IRAQI OFFICIALS CONVICTED OF CORRUPTION

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BAGHDAD 003360 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/29/2019 TAGS: PGOV KCOR KDEM IZ SUBJECT: SENIOR IRAQI OFFICIALS CONVICTED OF CORRUPTION REF: A. BAGHDAD 2385 ET AL ¶B. BAGHDAD 1990 ET AL Classified By: ACCO Joseph Stafford, reason 1.4 (b and d) DEPUTY TRANSPORTATION MINISTER -------------- ¶1. (SBU) While prosecution of senior GOI figures for corruption has been rare in recent years, of late the courts have convicted four upper-echelon officials for abuses. On December 21, the Commission of Integrity (COI) announced the Baghdad-based Central Criminal Court of Iraq's (CCC-I) conviction of Deputy Transportation Minister Adnan Al-Ubaidi for bribery; he received an eight-year prison sentence. The case originated in September, when, in a sting operation, COI officials caught Al-Ubaidi receiving a $100,000 installment of a $500,000 bribe from a private firm that he had solicited in exchange for facilitating an extension of the firm's contract to provide security services at Baghdad airport (Ref A). CONVICTIONS IN TRADE MINISTRY SCANDAL -------------- ¶2. (SBU) The COI subsequently announced the conviction in Muthanna Province's court of three senior Trade Ministry officials implicated in a scandal that arose last May over the discovery of tainted foodstuffs in Muthanna procured under the national food rationing program, the Public Distribution System, administered by the Ministry (see Ref B for background). The COI reported that two defendants, the head of the Ministry's agency responsible for procurement of foodstuffs and the former Trade Minister's media advisor, received one-year prison terms, while the third defendant, the agency head's deputy, received a two-year term. (COMMENT: The COI announcement omitted any mention of the specific charges on which the trio were convicted, but the relatively short prison sentences meted out suggests that investigators failed to come up with adequate evidence of more serious corruption-related charges -- e.g., acceptance of kickbacks from contractors supplying substandard food items -- and that hence prosecution was based on minor offenses, such as neglect in performance of official duties. END COMMENT) TRADE MINISTER AWAITS TRIAL -------------- ¶3. (C) Meanwhile, the central figure in the scandal, former Trade Minister Abdel Falah Al-Sudani, who resigned after tough questioning over corruption allegations by the Council of Representatives, continues to await trial. Arrested following his resignation, he is currently free on bail. In contrast to the three defendants convicted in Muthanna, Al-Sudani and another defendant, his brother, will face trial by the CCC-I in Baghdad, as jurisdiction was shifted there from Muthanna. (COMMENT: The reasons for the shift in jurisdiction are not clear, although some contacts asserted that Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki's office arranged for the shift to the capital in an effort to ensure influence over the trial proceedings. We find this assertion plausible, given Al-Sudani's links to Al-Maliki's Dawa Party. END COMMENT) In December 29 conversation with the spokesperson for Iraq's High Judicial Council, Judge Abdel Sattar Bayrkdar, mission officers asked about prospects of former Minister Al-Sudani facing trial. Judge Abdel Sattar responded by giving assurances that Al-Sudani would indeed be prosecuted, but that further investigation beforehand was needed due to poor handling of the inquiry to date. He claimed that unspecified "political pressures" on Qclaimed that unspecified "political pressures" on investigating judges to rush the investigation to conclusion had further impacted negatively on the quality of the evidence gathered so far. (COMMENT: We believe that the "political pressures" cited by Judge Abdel Sattar have come from both the Prime Minister's office and the political opposition, with the former seeking to restrict the scope of the investigation and the latter seeking to expedite the prosecution and hoped-for conviction of Al-Sudani. END COMMENT) COMMENT -------------- ¶4. (C) While the judiciary's action against corrupt senior officials is welcome, prospects for prosecution of the top figure, former Trade Minister Al-Sudani, remain uncertain, BAGHDAD 00003360 002 OF 002 Judge Bayrkdar's assurances notwithstanding. Another judicial source recently expressed skepticism that Al-Sudani would be brought to trial, citing investigators' poor conduct of the investigation and resulting lack of clearly incriminating evidence. By and large, though, our contacts implicate Al-Sudani in the widespread corruption that they see plaguing the Trade Ministry's Public Distribution System; they agree that a failure to prosecute the disgraced former Trade Minister would hardly bolster the GOI's professed claim that corrupt practices by even the most senior officials will not be tolerated. END COMMENT FORD