Iraqi federal supreme court holds additional hearing on Kurdistan oil export lawsuit
Iraq’s Federal Supreme Court holds a trial during a hearing for a lawsuit about the oil exports by the Kurdistan region, Baghdad, June 27, 2018. Photo: Iraqi Federal Supreme Court.
BAGHDAD,— Iraq’s federal Supreme Court held another session over a previous lawsuit filed by the Iraqi oil ministry against the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) natural resources ministry over the latter’s independent oil exports.
The court announced that it received all the requested responses except for the reply of the Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul Mahdi. The court rejected to take the answer of the secretary general of the Council of Ministers in lieu of the Iraqi premier.
The federal court also called on the secretary general of the Council of Ministers to prepare the answer of Abdul Mahdi in the next session
The next court session is slated to be held on August 6.
Lawmakers Hoshyar Abdulla, Sarkawt Shamsadin and Ahmad Haji Rashid from the Kurdish caucuses attended meeting and stressed at a news conference that the issue should be resolved through constitution and laws and its incomes to be in favor of the people.
The previous solutions to the issue failed because they were political not legal agreements, thus they were not implemented as they were and the people of the Kurdistan Region paid its price.
Iraqi council of representatives decided to follow up on a lawsuit that was filed by the Iraqi former oil minister Jabbar Alluaib in 2014 against Turkey regarding the oil exports by the Kurdistan Region to the port of Ceyhan.
Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) lawmaker in the Iraqi chamber Bakhtiar Shawis said on his official Facebook page that the Iraqi Council of representatives tasked the Oil, Energy and Natural Resources, Committee, Finance Committee and Legislative Committee on Saturday with following up the lawsuit about exporting oil to the port of Ceyhan in Turkey.
“The issue is an alarming ring, thus the Kurdistan Regional Government should understand and resolve it,” Shawais added.
In June, 2018, the Iraqi federal court held a meeting about a lawsuit filed by the federal former oil minister against exporting oil independently by the Kurdistan Region and called on the Region to clarify the constitutionality of of its oil exports.
The Iraqi oil minister Thamer al-Ghadhban previously called on the Iraqi government to halt the oil independent exports by the Kurdistan Region.
Kurdistan region considered as the most corrupted part of Iraq. According to Kurdish lawmakers and leaked documents billions of dollars are missing from Iraqi Kurdistan’s oil revenues. A Kurdish lawmaker said in March 2017 the amount of $1.266 billion from oil exports and Iraqi Kurdistan’s revenue has gone missing over the last three months.
In January 2019 a a top Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) official Mala Bakhtiar said that some 30,000 barrels per day of oil are being looted just from Kirkuk and smuggled into Sulaimani in Iraqi Kurdistan Region.
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