Nasiriyah: The Federal Integrity Commission announced that it carried out two separate operations in the Nasiriyah Municipality Directorate, resulting in the arrest of two officials for accepting bribes, embezzling public funds, and expediting transactions.

According to National Iraqi News Agency, the Commission explained in a statement: “A team from the Dhi Qar Investigation Office went to the Nasiriyah Municipality Directorate and caught the head of the Investment Division in the act of receiving $3,000 as a bribe from an investor in exchange for facilitating the approval process for granting him an investment license.”

In a related operation, the team conducted a separate raid on the Nasiriyah Municipality and the provincial Land Registry, where they apprehended the former official responsible for the Article 25 land allocation process. He had seized a property and registered it in his own name by manipulating the original allocation documents, despite it being designated for another individual.

The Commission added that the items seized from the suspect’s home and personal vehicle included land allocation documents, applications for land allocation under Article 25 for several citizens, records containing citizens’ names, land plot numbers, and official seals. A laptop and hard drives containing a database of beneficiary citizens and pre-prepared forms bearing the municipality’s name were also confiscated.

The Commission indicated that two formal seizure reports were prepared and presented, along with the suspects, before the investigating judge of the court specializing in such cases. The Integrity Commission in Dhi Qar decided to detain them and complete the appropriate legal procedures.