ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - Iraqi authorities on Thursday said they retrieved a former interior ministry officer, wanted on charges of corruption and receiving bribes, from Turkey.

Iraq’s federal integrity commission announced that Turkish authorities extradited the suspect following “intensive efforts” from Iraq’s interior ministry, judicial authorities, and intelligence services, which resulted in issuing “an international red notice and a search warrant” against the suspect.

Luqman Mohammed Soleiman was working as a medical officer in the medical affairs directorate in the Ministry of Interior. He has been accused of receiving bribery from people in exchange for promises to hire them in the ministry.

“The convict was handed over to the Iraqi authorities under guard from the airport in the Turkish capital Ankara to Baghdad International Airport; in preparation for his transfer and presentation to the competent judicial authorities,” the statement noted.

Soleiman has been previously sentenced in absentia to seven years in prison.

Successive Iraqi governments have been riddled with corruption charges. The country ranked 140th out of 180 in Transparency’s Corruption Perceptions Index for 2024.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia' al-Sudani in October dismissed Haider Hanoun from his position as head of Iraq’s integrity commission after audio recordings surfaced allegedly implicating him in bribery.