Iraq court hands Sunni vice-president 2nd death sentence

Baghdad: An Iraqi court has convicted the country’s Sunni vice-president on charges of instigating bodyguards to assassinate a senior government official and sentenced him to death.

Thursday’s verdict was the second death sentence for Tarek Al Hashemi in less than two months, both delivered in absentia since he is in exile in Turkey. Al Hashemi fled Iraq in December 2011, when the Shiite led-government accused him of playing a role in numerous attacks

He has denied the charges. The criminal court in Baghdad also sentenced Al Hashemi’s son-in-law to death on the same charges.

Supreme Judicial Council spokesman Abdul Sattar Bayrkdar says the two suspects instigated bodyguards to kill an official by sticking a bomb to his car.

Al Hashemi’s attorney Muayad Obaid Al Ezzi says he was not informed about the hearing or verdict. Al Hashemi has previously rejected the guilty verdict and death sentence passed on him in absentia labeling it as “politically motivated”. In remarks at a press conference in neighbouring Turkey in September, he launched a stinging attack on the government of Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki.

Al Hashemi was the most senior Sunni Muslim politician in Iraq and his case has sparked a political crisis. Al Hashemi insisted he was innocent of the charges and said he would continue to serve his country. He said that he would be prepared to face a “fair trial” but that the Iraqi courts were under Al Maliki’s influence. He described the verdict as a “medal on his chest”. He went on to accuse Al Maliki’s predominantly Shiite-led government of “pushing for” increased sectarian strife and urged his supporters to show a “high standard of self-discipline”.