Iraq religious official flees from police custody with officers suspected of assisting escape arrested

A former Iraqi religious official convicted of corruption has escaped police custody, prompting the arrest of more than two dozen officers suspected of helping him flee, the government said on Wednesday.

Saad Qambash was once head of Iraq's Sunni Waqf, the state body overseeing religious and civilian properties for Sunni Muslims, and had been jailed for four years earlier this month for fraud.

On Tuesday night, he escaped from a Baghdad police station "with the help of three individuals", said Yahya Rassul, the prime minister's spokesman for military affairs.

Qambash's accomplices had been waiting behind the police station and whisked him away, he said in a statement.

Investigating authorities had uncovered "documents" as evidence leading to the arrest of those involved, the statement said.

An interior ministry source who requested anonymity said eight police officers and 18 agents had been arrested in connection with the escape.

In March 2022, Qambash was sacked as head of the Sunni Waqf and a year later he was detained for questioning over graft allegations.

On April 11, a court sentenced him to a four-year prison term for using $36 million of Waqf funds to buy a hotel that anti-corruption investigators said was not "economically viable".

Qambash was accused of "wasting public funds", along with "financial and administrative abuse".

Corruption is endemic in oil-rich Iraq, where public funds are often spirited away from state coffers.

In November, authorities said $2.5 billion had been stolen from Iraq's tax authorities.

Prime Minister Mohamed Shia al-Sudani has repeatedly vowed to combat "the pandemic of corruption" since taking office last year.