Iraq corruption probe: Nineveh municipality employee caught hiding at shrine in Dhi Qar

BAGHDAD, Iraq — A female employee of the Nineveh municipality was detained at the Sayyid Khidr shrine south of Dhi Qar city after being found hiding there, Iraqi security sources said on Tuesday. The operation was carried out by a team from Iraq's Commission on Integrity, and the woman, who works in the municipality's property department, was taken into custody. The investigation is being conducted under Article 341 of Iraq's amended Penal Code No. 111. It is part of a broader corruption inquiry in Nineveh covering current and former employees of the municipality, the land registry and the local bar association. An investigative court previously issued arrest warrants against eight municipality employees, including a former mayor identified as Kahtan Adnan, a former property director, a city planning director and a land distribution commission secretary. More than eight people have been detained in the case, during which forged documents, official seals and records of roughly 600 residential land transactions were seized. Dhi Qar Governor Haysam al-Hamdani said he had assumed control of the municipal administration, carried out administrative changes and affirmed that the local government would support the judicial process and the Commission on Integrity.