Najah al-Shammari

Al-Shammari was born in Baghdad.[2] He is a Sunni Arab[2] and a member of the Shammar tribe (one of the largest and most influential Arab tribes).[5] Al-Shammari graduated from the Iraqi Military Academy in 1987 with a bachelor's degree in military science.[2] He also has a master's degree in strategic planning for national security.[2] Al-Shammari later served as a commander in the Iraqi Special Operations Forces and has held many military positions from 2003 until 2007.[2] He retired in 2018 with the rank of major general.[2]

Al-Shammari (right) in a meeting with United States secretary of defense Mark Esper in 2019.

On June 24, 2019, al-Shammari was approved by the Iraqi parliament as defence minister of Iraq in Adil Abdul-Mahdi's cabinet.[1][2] He was nominated to the post by the al-Wataniya coalition, led by former prime minister and then vice president of Iraq Ayad Allawi.[2][6]

In April 2019, prior to the nomination of al-Shammari as a candidate for the post of defence minister, there were reports in Iraqi media that al-Shammari has dual Iraqi-Swedish citizenship.[6] The claims were rejected as false by a representative of the al-Wataniya coalition.[6]

In November 2019, Swedish news website Nyheter Idag reported that al-Shammari is a Swedish citizen registered as a resident in a Stockholm suburb under an alternative surname (this surname was reported to be the name of al-Shammari's clan within the Shammar tribe).[4] According to the report, which was confirmed by Swedish authorities, al-Shammari applied for a residence permit in Sweden in 2009 and became a Swedish citizen in 2015.[4][7] It was also reported that al-Shammari was granted several state welfare benefits in Sweden, including full time sick leave, while he did not declare any (or for some years only very low) income from work.[4][7] He has also been the subject of several criminal investigations in Sweden, although he was never convicted of a crime.[4][7]

The Swedish police has launched a preliminary investigation into benefit fraud and civil registration violations against al-Shammari after allegedly claiming child and housing support for years despite living in Baghdad.[8][9] The Swedish Prosecution Authority also announced that it had started an investigation for crimes against humanity against "an Iraqi minister", whom Swedish media identified as al-Shammari.[8][10]

In November 2019, Albawaba reported that al-Shammari, while married, had allegedly sent sexually harassing messages to a 20 year-old male in Sweden, requesting anal sex despite repeated rejections, and allegedly been discovered to have sent text messages of a similar nature to multiple other men.[11] His wife has since filed for divorce, stating in her statement to Swedish police "“He’s cheating. It’s very obvious, he doesn’t seem to care that I know about his infidelity. He’s having sex with other men, I know it. When I tell him he’s treating me wrong, he yells at me and hits me." Al Shammari has denied his family's accusations of his infidelity.[12]

• Najah al-Shammari on Twitter