Published on 6/28/2026
On Sunday morning, Iraq witnessed a large-scale arrest campaign described as the first of its kind and the most prominent for an Iraqi government that was less than two months old.
The campaign included dozens of detainees in the early morning hours, facing justice on charges of financial and administrative corruption estimated at hundreds of millions of dollars. It included members of the House of Representatives whose parliamentary immunity was lifted and other officials, in a scene that redraws the lines of confrontation with corruption.
Sunday morning strike
On Sunday morning, the Counter-Terrorism Service carried out arrests in various areas of the capital, Baghdad, including the “Green Zone,” known as the residence of senior officials, in addition to other Iraqi governorates that witnessed arrests of local officials.
According to what the Iraqi News Agency reported from a high-ranking source, 47 defendants were arrested, including officials and representatives whose immunity was lifted. The charges against the suspects revolve around illegal gain and wasting public money.
Director of Al Jazeera’s office in Baghdad, Samer Youssef, said in a report he prepared for Al Jazeera that the arrests came pursuant to judicial warrants aimed at “protecting public money and deterring any operation aimed at blackmail,” according to confirmations from the Federal Integrity Commission.
These rapid developments come after confessions made by Deputy Oil Minister Adnan Al-Jumaili, who was arrested late last May on corruption charges that revealed his possession of tens of millions of dollars and his cooperation with influential officials in the legislative and executive branches.
Cumulative evidence
From a legal perspective, legal expert Haider Al-Sufi believes that the positive point in this path lies in the work of the regulatory agencies since 2005 until now to collect files, papers, evidence and clues.
According to Al-Sufi, these files and documents place the Judicial Council and judges today in front of a full bank of information and evidence ready to decide these cases.
On the other hand, Iraqi government spokesman Haider Al-Aboudi confirmed that the arrests are continuing and will not stop, pointing out that those whose names were mentioned have been arrested and evidence of the charges against them is available.
Al-Aboudi stressed, in an interview with Al Jazeera, that the government is continuing with its methodology in combating corruption to preserve public money, because this danger represents one of the most important challenges of the Iraqi state.
On the political level, writer and political analyst Hamza Mustafa believes that raids and arrests will affect other senior officials in the coming period, describing the process as unprecedented.
But Mustafa warned that its results would be dangerous because they represent what appears to be a “coup” against the political system based primarily on “collusion and internal understandings.”
In the middle of last month, Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi received the first batch of parliamentary confidence for his new government, after the Iraqi Council of Representatives voted by an absolute majority in favor of 14 ministries out of 23 portfolios within his ministerial formation.
