The Daily Star
Iraq's government announced Sunday it will take legal action against Judge Radhi al-Radhi, the former head of an anti-corruption committee who told US lawmakers this week that rampant graft is blocking progress in Iraq. "The government will sue the former head of the Commission on Public Integrity [CPI] for smuggling official documents and for defaming the prime minister," Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's office said in a statement. "We will work on getting him back to Iraq to submit him to the judiciary to investigate administrative and financial corruption charges against him." Radhi and a group of colleagues headed to Washington in August to undergo training with the US Justice Department. Maliki at the time accused him of fleeing the country to avoid being tried on graft charges and replaced him as head of the CPI, a position he had held since 2004, by Moussa Faraj. Radhi denies the graft allegations or that he has fled, saying he intends to return to Iraq once his training course is over and still regards himself as head of the CPI. He told the US Congress on Thursday that corruption was affecting virtually every ministry and that some of the most powerful officials in Iraq are implicated. He estimated that corruption has cost Iraq as much as $18 billion and has helped spawn sectarian militias, hampered political reconciliation and affected Iraq's oil industry.
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