Former Iraqi Defense Minister Najah al-Shammari was arrested at the Stockholm airport upon arriving in Sweden on Monday, the country’s authorities revealed on Tuesday. Shammari, who has dual Iraqi-Swedish citizenship, is accused of illegally claiming welfare benefits while living abroad.
Swedish media reports indicate that the former defense minister initially moved to Sweden with his wife in the early 2010s before becoming a citizen in 2015. According to an investigation published by Expressen, Shammari had already been reported for fraud as early as 2015. Reportedly, he continued to accept housing and child support payments despite returning to Iraq.
As recently as 2019, another Swedish newspaper, Nyheter Idag, reported that Shammari and his wife were still registered as living in a Stockholm suburb under a different surname.
Prosecutor Jens Nilsson, who announced the arrest Tuesday, told Swedish broadcaster SVT that Shammari, who served as Iraq’s defense minister from June 2019 to May 2020, has had an active warrant for more than a year.
Shammari has allegedly been under criminal investigation in Sweden multiple times but was never outright convicted.
Upon his ministerial appointment, representatives of Shammari’s ruling Iraqi political coalition refuted all media claims that Shammari was a dual-national.
Since being taken into custody, neither Shammari nor his legal representative have commented publicly on the situation.