Iraqi minister who fled corruption charges faces trial

Abdel Falah Al Sudani, 70, is charged with importing expired goods and procuring illegal contracts

A former Iraqi minister who was detained after trying to flee the country nine years ago, only to later escape, is back in Baghdad and facing trial for corruption.

Abdel Falah Al Sudani, a member of Nouri Al Maliki’s cabinet, was sentenced in absentia to seven years in prison in 2012.

Now 70 years old, Al Sudani caused deep embarrassment when in 2009 he tried to leave Iraq. But his plane was turned around by air traffic controllers before he reached Dubai.

Mr Al Maliki’s government at the time was trying to reassure foreign investors that corruption was being tackled.

As Iraq’s trade minister in 2009 Al Sudani was questioned over his role in administering a rationing system first introduced as part of the UN’s oil-for-food programme in the 1990s.

He was accused of importing expired commodities, sugar, and procuring illegal contracts as well as failing to fight corruption in his ministry.

After being taken into custody in Baghdad, following the air fiasco, he was released on bail of US$43,000 (Dh158,000) and managed to flee.

But having evaded authorities he was returned to Baghdad yesterday from Beirut after Interpol captured him in Lebanon in September.

Iraq’s prime minister, Haider Al Abadi, is urging a crackdown on corruption as the country is steeped in a series of high-profile investigations into misuse of public funds by politicians and businessmen.

The move follows Mr Al Abadi’s meeting yesterday with Interpol’s secretary general, Juergen Stock, at the World Economic Forum in the Swiss resort of Davos. Al Sudani is due in court on Sunday.

Iraq’s commission of public integrity welcomed what it called “years of efforts which led to Sudani’s extradition” following liaison with Interpol and Britain over fraud involving overpriced imports.

Al Sudani also holds citizenship of Britain where he studied. He served as trade minister from 2006 to 2009, after the US-led invasion that toppled dictator Saddam Hussein.

Iraq was ranked 166 out of 176 nations in Transparency International’s Corruption Index last year, which said the country continued to score among the world’s worst on corruption and governance indicators.

But under an amnesty law, Iraqi officials can escape jail if they pay sums allegedly taken from public coffers.