Shafaq News..Iraqi court upholds lawmaker’s extortion sentence

Shafaq News- Baghdad

Iraq’s Federal Court of Cassation on Sunday rejected an appeal by
lawmaker Hassanein al-Khafaji and upheld his two-year prison sentence for
extortion, according to the court’s decision.

The court found that the evidence against al-Khafaji was sufficient and
convincing to support his conviction.

The sentence was first handed down on July 23 by the Central
Anti-Corruption Criminal Court in Baghdad, which sentenced him to two years of
rigorous imprisonment, with credit for time already spent in detention.

Al-Khafaji, a lawmaker in Iraq’s sixth parliamentary cycle and a member
of the Reconstruction and Development Bloc led by former Prime Minister
Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, was among 47 officials arrested during the first phase
of the Dawn Crackdown anti-corruption campaign.

An earlier document from the Iraqi Federal Commission of Integrity said
investigators found that al-Khafaji had attempted to extort complainant Mustafa
Faal Mushtat by demanding $500,000 and a 40% stake in the Hawraa Baghdad
residential project, to be registered in the name of an employee in his office.

According to the commission, al-Khafaji allegedly promised to use his
influence to intervene with the Supreme Judicial Council and the Federal
Commission of Integrity to close a case involving alleged illicit wealth and
lift an asset freeze imposed on the complainant.

The commission said he also offered to intervene with the Baghdad
Investment Commission to facilitate the resumption of work on the Jawharat
Baghdad housing project despite having no legal authority to do so.

The original court convicted al-Khafaji under Article 452 of Iraq’s
Penal Code No. 111 of 1969, as amended.

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