SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Iraq’s federal court on Sunday ruled to reject nomination of Hoshyar Zebari as a candidate for the position of the presidency, state news agency INA reported.
Iraq’s Federal Supreme Court held a session on Sunday to decide on the case of Zebari, who is accused of corruption when he was the country’s finance minister.
“The court ruled to reject the nomination of Hoshyar Zebari for the presidency of the republic,” INA said.
On February 7, the federal court suspended procedures for the nomination of Zebari for the position of Iraqi president, following corruption allegations against him.
The second Karkh investigating court said in a communique it sent to the federal court that it had conducted an investigation into a case filed against Zebari accused of wasting billions of dinars when he was the foreign minister between 2005 and 2014.
The lawsuit was filed by lawmakers Dilan Ghafour Salih and Ali Turki Jasoumi against Zebari, the court said in the communique dated February 1.
The court further said Zebari had disbursed “sums of money as rents to a number of guards of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in violation of the law, amounting to 3,771,020,844 dinars, despite the objection of the administrative authorities to the spending”.
In 2016, Iraqi parliament sacked Zebari from his post as finance minister over alleged corruptions and misuse of public funds. Zebari denied the accusations.
Zebari, who also served as Iraq’s foreign minister for more than a decade, lost a no-confidence vote by 158 to 77.
*This story was updated at 1:57 p.m. EBL time
