Aleppo: Government authorities arrest dozens on charges of corruption and fraud
Aleppo – North-Press Agency
Ali al-Agha
Government authorities in the city of Aleppo have recently arrested dozens of government employees on charges of corruption and fraud of large sums of money.
A source from Aleppo told North-Press that the Criminal Security Forces arrested the director of the Ansari neighborhood a few days ago, in addition to more than 26 people involved in corruption cases, while the directors of four other municipalities are still being pursued.
The Criminal Security Branch summoned five directors of municipal sectors, namely al-Ansari, al-Akramiyah, Hanano, Saif al-Dawla, and al-Hamdanyia, in addition to many others in the city of Aleppo, according to the source.
The source added that these individuals were accused of taking advantage of the lockdown imposed on the city to prevent the spread of coronavirus to steal sterilization materials and large sums of money that were intended for these sectors to improve service matters and secure relief materials. They were also accused of granting licenses to build houses illegally.
On March 25, the government team concerned with procedures to confront coronavirus approved a partial lockdown, from 6:00 p.m. until 6:00 a.m., as part of the precautionary measures that were taken to cope with the coronavirus outbreak.
In a related context, well-informed sources confirmed to North-Press that the Military Security Branch deactivated the accounts of many social media pagew and arrested their owners, including the al-Zahraa neighborhood page on social media in Aleppo, against the background of their relations with figures involved in corruption.
Many of those arrested were involved in managing pages in support of some prominent figures in Aleppo and opposition pages against the Syrian government.
The Syrian government seized the funds of former Education Minister Hazwan al-Wazz and his wife on charges related to corruption worth about 350 billion Syrian pounds, as well as prosecuting corruption 87 government employees for corruption last September.
Syria has been plagued by corruption in most governmental institutions for decades. The Syrian government has already announced anti-corruption plans and projects, but they often ended without announcing their results to the Syrian public.
Syria occupied the penultimate position, ahead of Somalia, in the list of annual reports of corruption indicators issued by Transparency International, which monitors transparency and corruption in 180 countries around the world.