Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki warned the county's Kurdish government Wednesday that it is responsible for handing over Iraq's vice president to the judiciary in Baghdad, part of a controversy portending the breakup of the nation's fragile power-sharing agreement. "First of all, Iraq is one country," al-Maliki said. "It is the duty of all parts of a federal state to hand over a wanted individual," he added, referring to the Kurdish Regional Government's semi-autonomous federal status.
Tariq al-Hashimi, the county's Sunni vice president, is wanted for allegedly organizing a death squad targeting government and military officials. He denies the charges against him and says the accusations are politically charged, amid the rivalry between his Sunni-backed Iraqiya bloc and al-Maliki's Shiite political movement.
Now in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region, al-Hashimi said he wants the case to be transferred to that territory because of its neutrality. He held a news conference Tuesday in the Kurdish city of Irbil, where he disputed the charges and called on Arab League observers and attorneys from the Arab Lawyers Union to guarantee the fairness of any proceeding against him. Read More
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