Independent High Electoral Commission: chairman Faraj al-Haidari and commissioners Karim al-Tamimi and Osama al-Ani detained, given suspended sentences and cleared on appeal (2012)

On 12 April 2012 Faraj al-Haidari, chairman of the Independent High Electoral Commission, and commissioner Karim al-Tamimi were detained under Article 340 of the Penal Code, as MP Hanan al-Fatlawi of the State of Law coalition announced. Haidari said the case concerned bonuses of IQD 100,000 paid to five staff in 2008, which a court had earlier closed as an administrative matter, and called the detention an insult to the Commission. The spokesman of the judiciary, Abdul-Sattar al-Bayraqdar, said on 14 April that both had been released on bail of IQD 15 million each and would be tried when the investigation was complete. On 28 August 2012 the Rusafa criminal court gave Haidari, Tamimi and commissioner Osama al-Ani suspended one-year sentences, Haidari told AFP; AFP said the charge was paying a bonus of IQD 150,000 to an employee of the state property commission to obtain better-placed land plots. On 16 October 2012 Haidari said the federal appeals court had cancelled the verdicts, which a diplomat confirmed to AFP. The State of Law coalition had failed to unseat him in Parliament in July 2011.