The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) has named former Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani as one of the most corrupt officials of the year.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Austrian Prime Minister Sebastian Kurz are also on the final list of the most corrupt people of the year. Belarusian President Aleksandr G. Lukashenko has been named 2021’s Person of the Year by the (OCCRP) in recognition of all he has done to advance organized criminal activity and corruption, OCCRP said.

Drew Sullivan, a co-founder of OCCRP who served as a judge on the panel, said that Ashraf Ghani deserves such an award due to his corruption and incompetence.

"Ghani certainly deserves an award, too. He was breathtaking in both his corruption and his gross incompetence. He deserted his people, leaving them to misery and death so he could live among the corrupt former state officials in the moral cesspool that is the UAE," said Sullivan.

A panel of six journalists and scholars who study and report on corruption selected Lukashenko as the man of the year.

“It was a banner year for corruption, but Lukashenko stood out from the crowd," said Drew Sullivan, a co-founder of OCCRP who served as a judge on the panel.