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Qatar rejects Iraq demands to hand over
Sunni VP Hashemi
3.4.2012 |
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Iraq's Sunni Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi
has been hiding in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan
region since December 2011. Photo: Getty
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Iraq tells Qatar to return
fugitive Vice President Hashemi
April 3, 2012
DOHA, — The Gulf state of Qatar has
rejected Baghdad's demand to hand over Iraq's
fugitive Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi, State
Minister for Foreign Affairs Khaled al-Attiyah said
Tuesday.
"Diplomatic norms and the post of Hashemi prevent
Qatar from doing such a thing," he said when asked
about Baghdad's request for Doha to send the Sunni
leader back to Iraq, where he is accused of running
a death squad.
Hashemi, who arrived in Qatar on Sunday reportedly
for an official visit, had been in Iraq's autonomous
Kurdistan region since December 2011.
"Mr. Hashemi came in his capacity as a vice
president, and he continues to occupy this post, and
has not been sentenced, or stripped of his title,"
Attiyah told reporters.
Iraq's Shiite-led government has slammed Doha's
welcoming of Hashemi as "unacceptable." It also
criticised Kurdistan's decision to let him leave the
country as a "clear challenge to law and justice."
"The state of Qatar receiving a wanted person is an
unacceptable act and Qatar should back off from this
stance,www.ekurd.net
and return him to Iraq," Deputy Prime Minister
Hussein al-Shahristani said in Baghdad on Monday.
Hashemi, who denies the allegations against him and
says they are politically motivated, dismissed
Iraq's demand.
"There has not been a judicial decision against me
from any court, and the demand does not respect
Article 93 of the constitution, which provides me
with immunity," he told AFP in the Qatari capital on
Monday.
The accusations were levelled against Hashemi the
day after US forces withdrew from Iraq in December
2011, and sparked a festering political row.
Copyright ©, respective author or news agency,
AFP
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