Fugitive former Iraqi official dies shortly after his arrest

Ex-head of Sunni Endowment escaped Baghdad detention centre a few days after court sentenced him to four years in jail for corruption

Saad Kambash was found guilty of using $36 million of waqf funds to buy a hotel, which anti-corruption investigators said was not 'economically viable', during his term in office. Getty

The former Iraqi official who escaped from a detention centre in Baghdad on Tuesday died shortly after security forces arrested him on Thursday, a government statement said.

Saad Kambash, former head of the Sunni Endowment, was arrested last month and sentenced to four years in prison for corruption.

He was found guilty of using $36 million of waqf funds to buy a hotel, which anti-corruption investigators said was not “economically viable”, during his term in office from February 2020 to March 2022.

On Thursday, the Ministry of Interior said Kambash had been discovered in the city of Mosul, about 400km north of Baghdad.

“The force managed to surround his location, and during the arrest process, he tried to escape,” the ministry statement said.

“As the force started chasing him, he fell ill and his health condition deteriorated.”

He was dead on arrival at Mosul General Hospital.

“There were no external effects of stress on the body of the deceased, who suffered from chronic diseases,” the ministry statement added.

It also said that a special medical committee had been formed to carry out a postmortem and determine the cause of death.

On Tuesday, Kambash's sister, an MP, visited him at Karadat Maryam police station on the perimeter of Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone during iftar, Maj Gen Yahya Rasool, spokesman for the Iraqi Armed Forces, said in a statement.

A few hours later, “the convict escaped with the help of three people from behind the [police] station and reached two cars that were waiting for him to secure his escape”, said Maj Gen Rasool.

The Green Zone is home to the cabinet, parliament and key government offices, as well as foreign embassies and the homes of senior politicians.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al Sudani on Thursday sacked Lt Gen Hamid Al Zuhairi, commander of the Special Division who oversaw security in the Green Zone, according to a statement from his office.

The statement said the general was fired “due to insufficient action taken in response to the incident” and that “all those responsible” would be held accountable “and legally punished”.

The Prime Minister also ordered the closure of the unit in the police station and the transfer of prisoners being held there to other facilities.

Corruption has become one of the main features of the political landscape following the 2003 US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein’s regime.

The country was ranked 157 out of 180 on Transparency International's corruption perception index in 2022.