A judge from Iraq’s anti-corruption watchdog has ordered the head of the nation’s electoral commission and another member of the panel to be jailed until Sunday, a fellow commission member said. Faraj Al Haidari, the head of the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) and member Karim Al Tamimi are jailed “until Sunday due to a decision taken by a judge from the integrity commission,” a member of IHEC said on Friday on condition of anonymity. The judge could also order an extension of their custody. Asked about the matter, Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki’s spokesman Ali Mussawi said only that “it is a judicial issue related to the integrity commission and the judiciary.”
Haidari and Tamimi were arrested on Thursday for paying a bonus of 150,000 dinars ($130) to an IHEC employee, Judge Qassem Abboudi, also a member of the commission, said. Karima Al Assadi, a spokeswoman for IHEC, said Thursday that “an investigation of the integrity committee (Iraq’s anti-corruption watchdog) was under way within the electoral commission.”
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