Ministry of Trade food-ration (Public Distribution System) scandal and Minister Abdul Falah al-Sudani (from 2006 to 2018)

Trade Minister Abdul Falah al-Sudani (Dawa Party, from 2006 to 2009) faced Integrity Commission charges over the ministry's multi-billion-dollar food-ration system, imports of expired or substandard food, inflated contracts and front companies involving relatives. In May 2009 security forces trying to arrest ministry officials (including his brothers) were met with gunfire; the minister was questioned in parliament and resigned on 14 May 2009, and on 30 May 2009 his flight to Dubai was turned back and he was detained. The charges were dropped in 2010 (appeals court, lack of evidence) and he left for the UK. He was convicted in absentia (7 years, reported for 2012 and again by a Karbala court in November 2015), placed on Interpol's list (2014), arrested in Beirut (September 2017) and handed to Iraq on 25 January 2018, then sentenced in February 2018 to a total of 21 years in three cases. In November 2018 a Rusafa court committee applied the 2016 General Amnesty Law (amended) to one conviction after the Trade Ministry waived its complaint and ordered his release as far as that case was concerned.