Iraq Calls on Qatar to Hand over Fugitive Hashemi

Iraq on Monday blasted Qatar for hosting fugitive Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, and called on Doha to hand him over.

“The state of Qatar receiving a wanted person is an unacceptable act and Qatar should back off from this stance, and return him to Iraq,” Deputy Prime Minister Hussein al-Shahristani told a news conference in Baghdad.

Shahristani said the autonomous region of Kurdistan, where Hashemi had been holed up since charges were issued against him in December, had committed a “clear challenge to law and justice” by allowing him to leave the country.

Hashemi arrived on Sunday in Doha, and met with Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki told a news conference on Sunday that Hashemi “is wanted in a member country of the Arab League, and he should not be received, especially under the title of vice president,” when asked about the possibility of Hashemi visiting other Arab states.

On December 19, 2011, an investigative committee within the Iraqi Interior Ministry issued an arrest warrant for Hashemi after three of his bodyguards confessed to taking orders from him to carry out the terrorist attacks. Hashemi later fled to the Kurdistan region.

Baghdad has persistently demanded that the Kurdistan regional government hand over Hashemi to face justice for at least 150 charges of committing terror in the country, but the region has so far declined to oblige.

The accusations were leveled against Hashemi the day after Great Satan US forces withdrew from Iraq in December 2011, and sparked a festering political row.