Iraq tells Barzani to turn in VP Hashemi for terrorist attacks

Iraq has officially demanded that the semi-autonomous government of the Kurdistan region hand over Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi to Baghdad to face charges related to terrorist attacks in the country.

On Sunday, Iraq’s Interior Ministry officials said that Hashemi must come back to Baghdad to face charges that include “running a death squad and being the mastermind behind a November 2011 parliament blast.”

Hashemi is accused of involvement in bomb attacks against government and security officials over the past years, including a November 2011 car bombing in Baghdad that apparently targeted Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

On November 28, 2011, security officials said two people were killed in a car bombing at an Iraqi parliament parking lot inside Baghdad’s Green Zone.

Iraqi officials said that the target of the bombing was Parliament Speaker Osama Abdul Aziz al-Nujayfi. However, on December 3, 2011, Maliki revealed that he had been the target of the bombing.

Maliki recently demanded that President of the Kurdistan region Massoud Barzani and Iraqi President Jalal Talabani hand Hashemi over to the Iraqi judiciary.

The Iraqi president said on Sunday that he would head to Baghdad “before the end of this week to hold meetings with different Iraqi factions in an attempt to solve the political crisis” in the country.

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

The warrant was issued under Article 4 of Iraq’s anti-terrorism law.

Hashemi has denied the accusations and called for the referral of his case to the Kurdistan region, but Iraq’s judiciary has rejected his request.