Former Salah al-Din governor Ammar Jabr Khalil has been sentenced in absentia to 14 years in prison over contract-award violations, Iraq's Federal Commission of Integrity said on Sunday.

The sentence is made up of two consecutive seven-year prison terms imposed under Article 340 of Iraq's Penal Code, for deliberately harming the funds or interests of the public body he served, the commission said.

The case concerned violations of tendering regulations involving two contracts Khalil signed with two private companies. The court found the evidence "sufficient and convincing" to convict him, according to the commission's statement.

The rulings were issued by the courts specialising in integrity cases after investigations were completed and documents proving financial violations and deliberate damage to public funds during his tenure were available, the commission said. The two counts of financial and administrative corruption were dealt with as separate cases, each carrying a seven-year term.

The sentences also include disciplinary penalties and the confiscation of funds and assets related to the two cases, under the provisions of the Iraqi Penal Code covering crimes of official corruption, the commission's legal department said.

Khalil took office as governor in 2018 and was dismissed by parliament on 19 May 2022. According to parliament, the dismissal followed a request from the prime minister over deliberate negligence and waste of public funds.

The commission said it had previously announced two other in-absentia sentences against Khalil, totalling 17 years. The new 14-year sentence therefore adds to earlier convictions already handed down in his absence, meaning he faces a substantial total term if he is ever brought before the Iraqi courts.

Being sentenced in absentia means Khalil was convicted without being present in court. The commission said it has opened channels of coordination with relevant security and international agencies to issue red notices and pursue him abroad, with the aim of arresting him and extraditing him to the Iraqi judicial authorities.

The announcement came from Iraq's Federal Commission of Integrity, the body that pursues corruption cases involving public officials. The commission said the courts that issued the rulings specialise in integrity cases.

The commission presented the rulings as 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, and to recover stolen funds. Observers quoted in the reporting said enforcing strict penalties against former administrative leaders strengthens the rule of law and is a key step in the government's strategy to recover stolen funds and improve institutional performance.