Iraqi cleric who fled jail dies escaping recapture for corruption

An Iraqi cleric jailed for corruption, who escaped from prison and went on the run for two days, died on Thursday as security forces closed in on him, authorities said.

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

His escape triggered a decision by Prime Minister Mohamed Shia al-Sudani to sack a security chief in Baghdad and close the detention facility in the capital's Green Zone from which the senior cleric had fled on Tuesday night.

The interior ministry said Qambash had been found in Mosul in northern Iraq, some 350 kilometres (almost 220 miles) north of Baghdad.

In a later statement, the interior and health ministries said the cleric had tried to escape recapture.

"During his arrest he tried to flee -- the forces pursued him but he fainted," the statement said, adding that he had died before making it to hospital.

"The body of the deceased, who suffered from chronic illnesses, does not show signs of bruises," it added.

An interior ministry official told AFP on condition of anonymity that Qambash died of a "heart attack", and said an autopsy was expected.

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

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

Sudani has repeatedly vowed to combat "the pandemic of corruption" since taking office last year.