Iraq speaker resumes duties after graft charges dropped

By Ali Jawwad

BAGHDAD (AA) – Iraqi Parliament Speaker Salim al-Jabouri resumed his official responsibilities on Wednesday after an Iraqi court dropped corruption charges against him.

"Al-Jabouri has resumed his duties as parliament speaker," his spokesman, Imad al-Khafaji, told Anadolu Agency.

On Tuesday, citing a lack of evidence, a court dropped graft charges leveled earlier against al-Jabouri by Defense Minister Khaled al-Obeidi.

Al-Khafaji said the parliament speaker’s immunity "will be restored once the corruption case is officially closed".

Earlier Tuesday, Parliament had voted to lift al-Jabouri’s immunity so that he might be investigated for alleged corruption.

The same parliamentary session -- which was chaired by al-Jabouri’s deputy, Aram al-Sheikh Ali and attended by 237 MPs -- also saw the immunity of two lawmakers from the Alliance of Iraqi Forces, the largest Sunni bloc in parliament, lifted.

Late last month, al-Obeidi publicly accused al-Jabouri -- along with several MPs -- of engaging in corrupt practices.

In response, the parliament speaker filed a defamation lawsuit against the defense minister, accusing him of making "false allegations", "misleading the public" and "insulting sovereign state institutions".

The parliament speaker "will go to court Wednesday to follow up on his defamation lawsuit against the defense minister," al-Khafaji said.

Iraq ranks 161st out of 168 countries on Transparency International’s "corruption perceptions index".

Recent months have seen Iraq embroiled in political crisis, with supporters of firebrand Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr staging a series of protests to demand that Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi replace his government with a team of independent "technocrats" mandated with fighting government corruption.