Araji describes arrest warrant against CBI’s Governor as Immature
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) The head of the Parliamentary Integrity Committee, Baha al-Araji, described the arrest warrant against the Governor of the Central Bank of Iraq, Sinan al-Shibi, as “Immature”, expecting it “Of political purposes as what was done with the former independent committees.”
Speaking to Iraqi News (IraqiNews.com) on Tuesday, he said “The arrest warrant against Shibi is real and existed, but we think that the procedures against the CBI are immature because Iraq witnesses a hard situation.”
“The CBI is not less important than the Interior and Defense Ministries where it might affect the security situation in Iraq and result in the reduction of the Iraqi currency towards the foreign currencies,” he added.
“The arrest warrant against Shibi was a judicial one because it was issued by a specialist side,” he added, wounding about “The late response to the corruption issues referred by the Integrity Committee while this issue was settled within three days.”
“The former investigations of the Integrity Committee over the corruption issues in the CBI, revealed that there is a corruption in the CBI, but it is related to the officials in the CBI and not Shibi himself,” he pointed out, assuring that “The issue of the CBI is of political purposes as what was done with the other independent committees.”
Earlier, the Council of Ministers tasked the head of the Financial Supervision Department, Abdul Basit Turki, to run the Iraqi Central Bank as a substitute for the current Governor of the ICB, Sinan al-Shibibi.
The Iraqiya Satellite Channel quoted the Advisor of the Premier, Ali al-Musawi, as saying “The Council of Ministers decided to task Turki to run the ICB till further notice.”
It is worth mentioning that a source from the Parliamentary Committee tasked to investigate the corruption cases in the Iraqi Central Bank revealed that “The Governor of the ICB, Sinan al-Shibibi, called the Premier, Nouri al-Maliki, to dismiss four Directors in the Bank for their involvement in corruption cases.”
The source stated to IraqiNews.com “Shibibi have asked Maliki since three years to dismiss the four directors for they are responsible of the corruption taking place in the ICB yet Maliki rejected.”
“One of the investigation judges issued an arrest warrant against Shibibi but the UNAMI, the US Embassy in addition to the Presidency as well as some of the political leaders interfered and called the head of the Supreme Judicial Council, Midhat al-Mahmoud, who was not informed about the warrant,” the source added.
“Mahmoud issued an order to cancel the warrant and punished the judge who issued it considering arresting Shibibi as impacting the sovereignty of the country,” the source concluded.