Paris (IraqiNews.com) – The head of Iraq’s Federal Commission of Integrity, Mohammad Ali Al-Lami, held high-level discussions in Paris with senior French judicial and anti-corruption authorities on Tuesday, September 15, 2026, focusing on expanding direct bilateral mechanisms to extradite wanted fugitives and repatriate illicit Iraqi sovereign assets stashed abroad.
The meetings took place alongside the ongoing official government delegation visit to France led by Prime Minister Ali Faleh Al-Zaidi, aligning anti-corruption cooperation with broader diplomatic efforts to deepen Iraqi-French institutional partnerships.
During talks with the leadership of the French Anti-Corruption Agency (AFA), the Asset Recovery and Management Agency (AGRASC), and representatives from the French Ministry of Justice, Al-Lami emphasized that domestic legislative and regulatory oversight alone cannot counter the cross-border architecture of modern financial crime without proactive international cooperation.
He noted that tracking illicit wealth, executing freeze orders, and recovering state assets require streamlined mutual legal assistance requests, calling for direct channels to remove operational bottlenecks and accelerate judicial proceedings against convicted figures evading justice overseas.
Al-Lami stressed that repatriating stolen sovereign capital represents an economic imperative alongside a legal one, asserting that recovered funds will be channeled directly into vital national infrastructure, public service delivery, and sustainable development projects.
He added that restoring illicit assets and enforcing rigorous accountability are indispensable steps to establishing a secure, transparent business ecosystem capable of reassuring and attracting foreign investors. Pointing to Baghdad’s adherence to the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC), Al-Lami urged international partners to actively assist Iraq in tracing and returning funds held across foreign financial jurisdictions to the federal treasury.
The session concluded with both sides agreeing to formalize a comprehensive institutional agreement between Iraq’s Federal Commission of Integrity and the French Anti-Corruption Agency.
The prospective framework will focus on sharing French operational expertise in forensic financial investigations, corporate compliance, and risk assessments across both the public and private sectors, while establishing technical training pipelines to build the capacity of Iraqi investigative cadres and deploy advanced asset-tracing technologies.
