Former Finance Minister Rafi al-Issawi: corruption sentences in absentia (2015 to 2016), surrender and retrial (2020) and release on bail (2022)

Rafi al-Issawi, a former finance minister, left Iraq in 2013 after terrorism charges were brought against him. On 1 December 2015 the Integrity Commission said a criminal court had sentenced him and others to seven years in one of the cases it had referred. On 22 December 2015 it said a misdemeanour court had sentenced him and others to one year over the appointment of his relatives and the unlawful grant of job grades. On 21 January 2016 the Ministry of Finance's inspector general said an integrity court had sentenced him, two former directors general and two employees to seven years over advances of IQD 1,849,473,292 paid to the ministry's purchasing committee. The sentences were passed in absentia. He surrendered on 16 June 2020. On 30 June 2020 the Supreme Judicial Council said his objection had been accepted, that he had been released on bail and that he would be retried in public. On 10 April 2022 a Rusafa court released him on bail in the terrorism cases. The judiciary then said the Court of Cassation had ordered further inquiries to trace money whose fate was unknown, and that other cases against him were still before the courts.