A court in Iraq has sentenced the former governor of Salah al-Din province to 14 years in prison in absentia over corruption offences, the country's anti-corruption body has announced.

Iraq's Federal Integrity Commission said on Sunday that the former governor, Ammar Jabr Khalil, was convicted on two counts of financial and administrative corruption. The rulings were issued by courts specialising in integrity cases, after investigations were completed and documents were produced showing financial violations and deliberate damage to public funds during his time in office.

The 14-year sentence is made up of two consecutive seven-year terms, imposed under Article 340 of Iraq's Penal Code for deliberately harming the funds or interests of the public body he served. The court found the evidence against him sufficient and convincing, the commission said.

The case concerned breaches of tendering rules involving two contracts that Khalil signed with two private companies while he was governor. Alongside the prison terms, the sentences include disciplinary penalties and the confiscation of funds and assets linked to the two cases, under the provisions of the Iraqi Penal Code that apply to official corruption.

The commission said it had opened channels of coordination with relevant security and international agencies to issue red notices and pursue the convicted man abroad, with the aim of arresting him and extraditing him to Iraq's judicial authorities.

This is not the first sentence handed down against Khalil in his absence. The commission said it had previously announced two other in-absentia sentences against him, totalling 17 years, including one issued in November 2022.

Khalil took office as governor of Salah al-Din in 2018. He was dismissed by Iraq's parliament on 19 May 2022, after a request from the prime minister over what parliament described as deliberate negligence and waste of public funds.

The commission said the rulings form part of a wider campaign by Iraq's executive and judicial branches to prosecute senior officials involved in corruption and the squandering of public funds. Observers of Iraqi affairs believe that strict penalties against former administrative leaders strengthen the rule of law and mark a key step in the government's strategy to recover stolen funds and improve institutional performance.