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.
Read more: Iraq’s Dawn Crackdown spreads through state institutions
