Zana Hama Saleh, deputy governor for the Sulaimaniyah district in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region, "hanged himself this afternoon," in his jail cell, the Asayesh internal security forces said in a statement.

Saleh was arrested under article 307 of the Iraqi penal code, which deals with bribery, the statement added.

"His body was sent to the department of forensic medicine for examination," the statement said.

A high-ranking Iraqi security official confirmed the report saying that Saleh "committed suicide with a rope inside the prison of the security directorate."

A judicial source close to the investigation told AFP that "Saleh was arrested on Sunday (April 8) after being accused of taking bribes from owners of agricultural land" to facilitate land registration with the government.

The source added that four other people had been arrested in connection with the investigation -- a police major, a lieutenant colonel in the peshmerga Kurdish security forces, an official from the agriculture department and a private citizen.

Saleh, 40, was a member of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan party.

He had denied that he was involved in corruption in statements to local Kurdish newspapers.