Iraq lifts parliamentarians’ immunity over graft probe

The Iraqi parliament has voted to strip the immunity of the legislature’s speaker and two lawmakers in a bid to allow an investigation into corruption charges brought against the trio by Defense Minister Khalid al-Obeidi.

An unnamed parliamentary official said on Tuesday that a majority of the 237 lawmakers in attendance supported the removal of parliamentary immunity from Speaker Salim al-Juburi, MP Mohammed al-Karbouli and MP Taleb al-Maamari.

Following the parliamentary vote, Juburi testified before a judiciary commission that investigates the accusations leveled at him, judiciary spokesman Abdul Sattar Bayraqdar said in a statement.

Meanwhile, lawmaker Ahmed al-Badri noted that Juburi had called for the vote so that he could defend himself against the corruption charges.

On August 1, Obeidi went to the legislature to answer allegations of wasting billions of dollars in public funds and weakening the country’s armed forces in their fight against the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group.

During the questioning, however, he accused Juburi and several lawmakers of corruption.

Obeidi insisted that he was being challenged in retribution for his rejection of corruption, accusing the parliamentarians of seeking to blackmail him in order to pass corrupt deals, including a USD 1 billion catering contract, a USD 2.8 billion accord for armored vehicles, and a USD 421 million pact for US military Humvee vehicles.

Consequently, a travel ban was issued on the suspected corrupt MPs and an official inquiry was launched into the case.

The row comes as Iraqi Prime Minster Haider al-Abadi has faced calls to reform the country’s political structure in a bid to tackle corruption there.

Earlier this year, the parliament was deadlocked for weeks over the premier’s efforts to replace the cabinet.

Iraqi citizens also held sit-ins inside Baghdad’s highly fortified Green Zone aimed at keeping up pressure on the government to change ministers. The protests were called by the prominent Iraqi cleric, Muqtada al-Sadr.

The latest developments on Iraq’s political scene come at a time when the Iraqi army troops and allied volunteer forces are conducting large-scale military operations against the Daesh militants, who have been controlling swathes of land in the northern and western parts of the country since 2014.

The army is gearing up for a major offensive to liberate Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city and the last remaining bastion for Daesh in northern Iraq.

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