Baghdad – INA
Experts monitoring Iraqi affairs praised the measures of the Supreme Judicial Council-SJC in the field of combating corruption, particularly the issuance of an in absentia ruling against the defendant in the “Deal of the Century” case, Noor Zuhair, sentencing him to 10 years in prison.
While they indicated that the judiciary had completed the procedures for pursuing him and implementing the ruling issued against him, they confirmed that the defendant was not included under the General Amnesty Law due to not completing the recovery of all the funds he had stolen.
Legal expert Haider Al-Dhalimi told the Iraqi News Agency (INA): “The ‘Deal of the Century’ is considered one of the major and important cases that the Supreme Judicial Council undertook during the previous period, after the completion of the investigation and trial procedures against the convicted Noor Zuhair, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison in absentia,” noting that “during that period, the defendant Noor Zuhair submitted a request to the executive authorities to be included under the General Amnesty Law.”
He explained that “when the General Amnesty Law was enacted by the Council of Representatives, it included a provision allowing those who had stolen state funds to be covered by the law, but on the condition that all the stolen funds be returned,” pointing out that “Zuhair submitted a request to be included under the law in coordination with the previous government and the Supreme Judicial Council, but until today, all the funds stolen by the convicted Noor Zuhair have not been fully recovered, and therefore he has not been included in the procedures of the General Amnesty Law.”
He continued: “The defendant Noor Zuhair is still outside Iraq, and as is known, the extradition of defendants and convicted persons is carried out through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Justice, and the government’s executive bodies, which work to recover defendants present in the territories of other countries based on extradition agreements.”
He confirmed that “the defendant Noor Zuhair has not been handed over up to this moment, despite the fact that information indicates that the previous Iraqi government knew his location in one of the countries neighboring Iraq. Therefore, the convicted person could have been extradited because he had not completed the process of recovering the funds and being included under the General Amnesty Law,” noting that “the court’s ruling will remain in force, and this criminal must be brought back and the sentence enforced.”
He pointed out that “there is a flaw and delay in the procedures of the previous government, and we hope that the current government will activate the process of recovering the criminal, placing him in prison and enforcing the judicial ruling against him, or applying the provisions of the General Amnesty Law through the return of all the funds that were stolen by the convicted Noor Zuhair,” stressing that “the current government has taken major measures in corruption-related cases.”
Political analyst Majashaa al-Tamimi told the Iraqi News Agency (INA) that the Supreme Judicial Council’s completion of procedures to pursue defendant Nour Zuhair and enforce the 10-year prison sentence issued against him demonstrates that the judiciary continues to carry out its duties within the legal framework.
He added that if there had been periods marked by government delays in recovery procedures or in handling settlement requests, such delays should not be attributed to the judiciary. He noted that effective anti-corruption efforts require coordination between the judiciary and the executive authority, as judicial rulings lose part of their impact if their implementation or the recovery of convicted individuals is delayed.
Al-Tamimi stressed that supporting the judiciary today means supporting the authority of the state and the rule of law.
Political researcher Mohammed al-Jazairi pointed to differing approaches between the imperative of law enforcement and the requirements of asset recovery, saying the situation reflects alignment in objectives but divergence in methods. He explained that while the Supreme Judicial Council completed its constitutional and investigative process leading to the judicial ruling, subsequent executive mechanisms faced procedural challenges governed by cross-border complexities.
Al-Jazairi told INA that this apparent delay essentially reflects a complex administrative choice between two options: strict and immediate enforcement of the penalty, or allowing time to explore financial settlement avenues as a practical mechanism that gives the state the highest priority in recovering assets and public funds.
The Supreme Judicial Council had previously contacted the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) to seek the extradition of Nour Zuhair, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison under Articles 444(4) and 11 of Iraq’s amended Penal Code No. 111 of 1969. The council also ordered a formal search of his residence and places where he may be found in order to arrest him, while upholding the seizure of the convicted individual’s movable and immovable assets.