Anger in Iraq after the “thief of the century” was released on bail

Al-Maliki warned Al-Sudani that his government is targeted by the dollar crisis

After the Iraqi judiciary issued a decision to release the main suspect in what was known as “the theft of the century,” Nour Zuhair Jassim, in exchange for recovering the money he admitted to stealing, which amounts to regarding one trillion Iraqi dinars (regarding 800 million US dollars), he issued a decision to release another suspect, the former deputy in Iraqi parliamentarian Haitham al-Jubouri, in exchange for a guarantee of 4 billion Iraqi dinars (regarding two and a half million US dollars); In exchange for recovering the money he admitted, amounting to regarding 17 billion Iraqi dinars (regarding 15 million dollars).

The two decisions sparked a wave of anger, as the former head of the Integrity Commission in Iraq, Judge Haider Al-Agaili, believes that “the state’s necessity to submit to the will of the thieves or to compliment them, and to ease the procedures once morest them, on the promise of returning some of what they stole, sends wrong messages regarding the state’s weakness and impotence.”

For his part, legal expert Ahmed al-Abadi said in a statement to Asharq Al-Awsat that “the fight once morest corruption must start from the top,” adding: “We have not seen that a senior official in the state has been held accountable.”

In addition, Nuri al-Maliki, head of the “State of Law” coalition, and a leader in the Shiite “coordinating framework” forces that formed the current government, called on Prime Minister Muhammad al-Sudani to reach an understanding with Washington, to contain the repercussions of severe turmoil in the Iraqi markets, as a result of the decline in the exchange rate of the dinar. The Iraqi is in front of the dollar, and he said: «There are those lurking in the government and the state through the dollar gate».

Despite al-Maliki’s “reserved” defense of the government, circles in the “State of Law” coalition do not hide their displeasure with the “slow” measures taken by al-Sudani to confront the dollar crisis, and see, according to a source within the coalition, that this “affects the reputation of the coalition, which focused on its electoral program.” To address the increase in the price of the dollar approved by the previous government and to deal seriously with the problem of poverty in the country.
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