Economist Al Marsoumi to sue Iraqi Parliament over defamation clashes

Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) – A major legal and public dispute erupted on Wednesday, June 3, 2026, between prominent Iraqi economic expert Nabil Al-Marsoumi and the media office of the Council of Representatives (Parliament). During a televised interview with journalist Mohammad Al-Khuzai, Al-Marsoumi announced his intention to file a formal lawsuit against Parliament’s media department. The legal action follows an official statement issued by the legislature earlier that afternoon, which used terms like “the so-called” and “the aforementioned” to reference the expert—descriptions Al-Marsoumi strongly rejected, stating they are entirely inappropriate for a university professor of economics. The public feud escalated after Parliament fiercely pushed back against financial data Al-Marsoumi had recently published. In its official response, the Council of Representatives labeled his claims as complete fabrications with no basis in reality. The legislature stated that its actual workforce is less than a quarter of the 12,500 figure cited by the expert, and asserted that all internal salaries strictly comply with the standard civil service pay scales annexed to the State Employees Law. Furthermore, Parliament announced it had already initiated legal proceedings against Al-Marsoumi before competent courts, accusing him of defamation and damaging the reputation of the legislative branch. Al-Marsoumi vigorously defended his research, countering that Parliament’s media department lacks professionalism and clear communication standards. He emphasized that he never publishes financial commentary without anchoring his figures in official state documents. The professor clarified that the 12,500 payroll figure and the 551 billion IQD total allocation for 2025 explicitly encompassed both the Council of Representatives and its functionally linked oversight bodies, including the Commission of Integrity, the Federal Board of Supreme Audit, and the Accountability and Justice Commission. He explained that dividing this total published budgetary sum by the comprehensive workforce yields an average monthly salary of 3.6 million IQD per employee, suggesting that Parliament’s media team issued a blind denial without reviewing its own public ledger. To contextualize the wage disparities across sovereign institutions, Al-Marsoumi compared these figures to other state branches, noting that official data from the country’s three-year budget shows the average monthly salary within the Presidency of the Republic stands at 2.5 million IQD. The expert stood firmly by his initial analysis, repeating that the average monthly compensation within Parliament and its affiliate network represents an astonishing 12 times the national minimum wage mandated for standard Iraqi civil servants. He concluded by reiterating that the derogatory tone used by the state institution is legally unacceptable, cementing his decision to seek judicial recourse. The post Economist Al Marsoumi to sue Iraqi Parliament over defamation clashes appeared first on Iraqi News.