Lawyers for Iraq's VP resign from case
Source: Agencies |
May 21, 2012, Monday
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LAWYERS for Iraq's fugitive Sunni vice president charged with running death squads quit the case yesterday in protest after judges rejected their request for evidence for his defense.
The development underscored Tariq al-Hashemi's claim that he will not get a fair trial on the charges he denies and says are politically motivated.
The case threatens to paralyze Iraq's government by fueling simmering Sunni and Kurdish resentments against the Shiite prime minister, who critics claim is monopolizing power.
"It became clear that there is a hidden political decision to incriminate me," al-Hashemi said in a statement after the court adjourned yesterday afternoon. "The judge became my adversary."
He said his "basic rights and guarantees of the defendants" have been violated.
At the outset of the trial's second day, al-Hashemi's defense team demanded to be allowed to pull his phone records and appointment calendars to help refute earlier testimony that the vice president and his son-in-law had ordered bodyguards to kill security and government officials. Their aim was to prove that al-Hashemi, one of the highest-ranking Sunni officials in the Shiite-led government, had either been out of the country or not in contact with the bodyguards at the time he allegedly ordered the assassinations.
But a three-judge panel rejected the request, and ruled that last week's testimony by three bodyguards who swore they were given money to kill al-Hashemi's enemies was strong enough to negate any further evidence.
The development underscored Tariq al-Hashemi's claim that he will not get a fair trial on the charges he denies and says are politically motivated.
The case threatens to paralyze Iraq's government by fueling simmering Sunni and Kurdish resentments against the Shiite prime minister, who critics claim is monopolizing power.
"It became clear that there is a hidden political decision to incriminate me," al-Hashemi said in a statement after the court adjourned yesterday afternoon. "The judge became my adversary."
He said his "basic rights and guarantees of the defendants" have been violated.
At the outset of the trial's second day, al-Hashemi's defense team demanded to be allowed to pull his phone records and appointment calendars to help refute earlier testimony that the vice president and his son-in-law had ordered bodyguards to kill security and government officials. Their aim was to prove that al-Hashemi, one of the highest-ranking Sunni officials in the Shiite-led government, had either been out of the country or not in contact with the bodyguards at the time he allegedly ordered the assassinations.
But a three-judge panel rejected the request, and ruled that last week's testimony by three bodyguards who swore they were given money to kill al-Hashemi's enemies was strong enough to negate any further evidence.
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