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Iraqi VP proclaims 'absolute innocence'
Source: Agencies |
September 11, 2012, Tuesday
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IRAQ'S fugitive Sunni vice president yesterday declared his "absolute innocence" and rejected the terror trial that sentenced him to death on charges of masterminding the murder of rivals as a politically motivated sham.
Tariq al-Hashemi, who fled Iraq after the country's government brought the charges against him, called the trial illegitimate and accused Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite and longtime foe of the vice president, of orchestrating it as part of a political vendetta.
"The verdict is unjust, politicized, illegitimate and I will not recognize it," al-Hashemi told reporters in the Turkish capital of Ankara. "But I put it as a medal of honor on my chest because it was al-Maliki, not anyone else, behind it. I'm proud that it is al-Maliki, and not anyone else, to target me."
"The death sentence is a price I've to pay due to my love for my country and my loyalty to my people. I reiterate that I'm innocent, and am ready to stand before a fair judicial system and not a corrupt one that is under al-Maliki's influence."
Al-Hashemi fled to Turkey after Iraq's Shiite-led government issued the terror charges against him in December, the day after United States troops withdrew from the country.
The politically charged case sparked a government crisis and fueled Sunni Muslim and Kurdish resentment against al-Maliki, whom critics say is monopolizing power.
On Sunday, Baghdad's criminal court convicted al-Hashemi and his son-in-law, Ahmed Qahtan, of organizing the murders of a Shiite security official and a lawyer who had refused to help the vice president's allies in terror cases. The two defendants were acquitted in a third case of the killing of a security officer due to a lack of evidence.
The charges were the first against al-Hashemi to go to trial among the government's allegations that he played a role in 150 bombings, assassinations and other attacks from 2005 to 2011 - years in which the country was mired in retaliatory sectarian violence that followed the 2003 US-led invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein's Sunni regime.
Tariq al-Hashemi, who fled Iraq after the country's government brought the charges against him, called the trial illegitimate and accused Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite and longtime foe of the vice president, of orchestrating it as part of a political vendetta.
"The verdict is unjust, politicized, illegitimate and I will not recognize it," al-Hashemi told reporters in the Turkish capital of Ankara. "But I put it as a medal of honor on my chest because it was al-Maliki, not anyone else, behind it. I'm proud that it is al-Maliki, and not anyone else, to target me."
"The death sentence is a price I've to pay due to my love for my country and my loyalty to my people. I reiterate that I'm innocent, and am ready to stand before a fair judicial system and not a corrupt one that is under al-Maliki's influence."
Al-Hashemi fled to Turkey after Iraq's Shiite-led government issued the terror charges against him in December, the day after United States troops withdrew from the country.
The politically charged case sparked a government crisis and fueled Sunni Muslim and Kurdish resentment against al-Maliki, whom critics say is monopolizing power.
On Sunday, Baghdad's criminal court convicted al-Hashemi and his son-in-law, Ahmed Qahtan, of organizing the murders of a Shiite security official and a lawyer who had refused to help the vice president's allies in terror cases. The two defendants were acquitted in a third case of the killing of a security officer due to a lack of evidence.
The charges were the first against al-Hashemi to go to trial among the government's allegations that he played a role in 150 bombings, assassinations and other attacks from 2005 to 2011 - years in which the country was mired in retaliatory sectarian violence that followed the 2003 US-led invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein's Sunni regime.
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