Radhi Hamza al Radhi

Radhi Hamza al-Radhi was an Iraqi judge who served under Saddam Hussein's presidency. He was the head of the Commission on Public Integrity, which was established in 2004 to investigate and prosecute corruption cases in Iraq. He believed that corruption had cost Iraq £9 billion in the past three years and that most of the money had ended up in the hands of the sectarian militias. On October 4, 2007, al-Radhi appeared before the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and accused the government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki of protecting corrupt employees and of actively attempting to "eradicate or control the Commission" and refusing to recognize the independence of the Commission on Public Integrity in violation of the Iraqi Constitution. The government responded by announcing they would sue al-Radhi for smuggling official documents, defaming the prime minister, and corruption. He fled Iraq and sought asylum in the United States in 2007. He was granted asylum in 2008 and settled in San Diego, California. He continued to work as a journalist and activist, exposing the corruption and human rights violations in Iraq. He died in 2018 in San Diego, at the age of 63.