A major security and judicial operation was carried out at the Nasiriyah Municipality in Dhi Qar province on Tuesday, resulting in the arrest of 18 employees, including senior officials and retired staff, over suspected corruption, with the participation of an Integrity Commission team.
An informed source at the Dhi Qar Governorate said security forces raided several homes belonging to retired municipal employees and arrested them, adding that arrest warrants had been issued against all those detained by the Nasiriyah Investigation Court specializing in integrity-related cases.
The warrants were issued under Article 341 of Iraq’s amended Penal Code No. 111 of 1969, according to the source.
The operation comes amid ongoing investigations into alleged corruption within the municipality, particularly suspected manipulation in the allocation of around 40,000 plots of land, as well as cases involving the misuse of public funds and irregularities in various contracts and transactions.
Previous investigations have also targeted former senior municipal officials, heads of property and urban planning departments, members of the land distribution committee, as well as employees in real estate registration offices and intermediaries.
In a related development, a former official in the municipality’s Property Affairs Division was sentenced to six years in prison after being convicted of accepting bribes, manipulating land transactions and falsifying official documents.
