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Iraqi VP Hashemi denies any involvement in
150 terrorist operations
18.2.2012
By Al Arabiya
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Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi has rejected allegations
that he ran death squads. Al-Hashemi
has been hiding in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan
region since December 2011. Photo: Al Arabiya
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February
18, 2012
SULAIMANIYAH,
Kurdistan region 'Iraq', — Iraqi Vice
President Tareq al-Hashemi has denied charges of
terrorism leveled against him and said that he will
leave the country altogether if he has to, in an
interview with Al Arabiya on Friday.
Hashemi, who is currently living in the country’s
northern semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan, denied
links to terrorist operations, saying that it is
possible perhaps one of his security guards was
involved.
He said he could not verify the “honesty” of his
security guards after their confessions that they
received orders from him personally to carry out
target terrorist operations.
Late January, Iraqi security forces detained 16 of
Hashemi’s bodyguards.
Local and international observers said that the
Iraqi government cannot base charges against Hashemi
on mere confessions from his bodyguards; especially
since some of the arrested security guards looked as
if they had been beaten during their confessions of
their accounts on Iraqi TV channels.
On Friday, Iraqi courts said that the fugitive vice
president and his security guards were involved in
150 terrorist operations against citizens.
Abdul Sattar al-Beer Qadar, representative of the
country’s Higher Judicial Council, said that Hashemi
and his security guards were
involved in 150 terrorist operations
including suicide bomb blast against visitors of
Al-Imam Al-Kadhim mosque in Adhamiya in 2010,www.ekurd.net
assassination of an the Iraqi actor Waleed Ja’aaz in
2006, targeting Iranian Shiite pilgrims in the
country’s holy shrines, as well as citizens,
doctors, lieutenants and military officers.
Late January, a source close to the government of
Kurdistan said that there were unconfirmed reports
that Hashemi had disappeared from the villa that he
was staying in, making his whereabouts hard to
trace. Another source said that there was a
discussion on whether Hashemi had fled to either
Turkey or Iran.
In January, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu,
said Ankara would not turn Hashemi away if he
requested asylum, but said he should stay in Iraq.
Meanwhile, Hashemi’s Sunni-backed yet secular
Iraqiya List objected on Friday to a proposal that
the country’s Vice Prime Minister Salih al-Mutlaq
fill the position of the fugitive vice president,
describing the suggestion as an “immoral”
transaction. Iraqiya Party said it cannot happen
before the closure of Hashemi’s case.
On December, 2011, Hashemi was charged with running
a death squad, and later rejected the opportunity to
head to Baghdad to stand trial.
Early in January, Hashemi said that the charges
being set against him were of a “sectarian nature”
and were used as a ruse to get rid of him. Warning
of sectarian consequences in the conflict-torn
country, the wanted vice president said that he
would only stand for trial in the Kurdish autonomous
region as opposed to Baghdad, as it is independent
from the country’s Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s
grip.
“The Iraqi judicial council is under the control and
the influence of the central government, and this is
a big problem,” Hashemi said. “That is why I asked
to move the case to Kurdistan. ... Justice here will
not be politicized.”
The warrant against Hashemi has been the focus of a
political row between Shiite al-Maliki and the
Sunni-backed Iraqiya bloc, which is a part of his
national unity government and of which Hashemi is a
member.
The political row between the country’s two main
alliances started at the end of 2011, right after
the withdrawal of the U.S. troops from Iraq.
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