http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4§ion=0&article=123072&d=31&m=5&y=2009&pix=world.jpg&category=World
Sunday 31 May 2009 (06 Jumada al-Thani 1430)
Iraqi ex-minister arrested for graft
Reuters
BAGHDAD: Police yesterday detained Iraq's former trade minister in
connection with graft allegations involving food rations, ordering a plane in
which he was flying to Dubai to turn back, witnesses and officials said.
An Iraqi judge issued an arrest warrant for former Trade Minister Abdul
Falah Al-Sudany yesterday, but he had already boarded a plane to Dubai,
Parliament's anti-graft watchdog said.
A passenger traveling on the same plane said it was turned back about
half an hour into the flight. "The captain told us we had to go back to Baghdad
because of congestion at Dubai airport," passenger Abdul-Muhsin Salem said,
adding that about 250 other travelers were on board. "On arrival, he (the
minister) was taken by two plainclothes security officers from the plane at
Baghdad airport. They were very polite. He wasn't handcuffed or anything."
Sudany resigned this month over a corruption scandal relating to Iraq's
public food ration program, one of the world's biggest.
The scandal, in which millions of dollars meant to buy food imports were
embezzled or taken in kickbacks by officials in Iraq's Grain Board and in the
ministry, has already led to the arrest of one of Sudany's brothers and the
flight of another.
Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki, who is close to Sudany, has pledged to
crack down on endemic graft, a top concern of Iraqis before parliamentary
elections next January.
The Trade Ministry controversy erupted shortly after a video circulated
in Baghdad apparently showing one of the brothers and a ministry spokesman
cavorting with a belly dancer and a lap dancer. One of the men insults
Al-Maliki in the video, which appears to have been recorded on a cellular phone.
The head of Iraq's Integrity Commission in Parliament, Sabah Al-Saedi,
said he had called Baghdad airport after the arrest warrant was issued to order
that the former minister's plane be recalled. Saedi said the minister had
booked air tickets to both Dubai and Amman.
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