Ahmad Chalabi and his nephew Salem Chalabi said yesterday that warrants issued for their arrests by Iraq's Central Criminal Court were part of a political conspiracy trumped up by former president Saddam Hussein loyalists.
Ahmad Chalabi, a former Gov-erning Council member with strong US ties, was wanted in Iraq on counterfeiting charges, while Salem Chalabi, head of the special tribunal in charge of trying Saddam, faced an arrest warrant for murder, Iraq's chief investigating judge said on Sunday.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Both men, who were abroad, strenuously denied the charges and attacked Judge Zuhair al-Maliky, the man who signed the warrants on Saturday.
"He has consistently attempted to manipulate the justice system for political purposes," Ahmad Chalabi said in a statement yesterday.
Al-Maliky, he said, "is not a bona fide Iraqi judge but rather an unqualified person who was put in his position by the American occupation authorities."
Al-Maliky said on Sunday that the two men should be arrested and questioned.
"If there is enough evidence they will be sent to trial," he said.
Salem Chalabi said the murder charge would play into the hands of former Baathist officials, including Saddam, who is facing trial for war crimes before his nephew's tribunal.
"They can easily make allegations that this whole process is fraud because the director of the tribunal has all these charges against him. Initially I suspected that these charges were trumped up by Baathists," he said by telephone from London.
In Washington, the Bush administration had no comment about the charges against the Chalabis.
The warrant was the latest blow against the elder Chalabi, who has been pushed from the centers of power. A longtime exile opposition leader, he had been a favorite of many in the Pentagon but fell out with the Americans in the weeks before the US occupation ended.
Meanwhile, a firebrand Shiite cleric yesterday defied demands from Iraq's interim government that his militia pull out of Najaf, after days of fierce fighting with US Marines who claim to have killed 360 of his fighters.
Heavily armed Marines backed by aircraft tightened their noose around the holy city in heavy battles yesterday, but a senior US military official denied coalition forces were hunting the young cleric, Moqtada al-Sadr.
Sadr thundered defiance during a news conference at Najaf's holiest shrine, the Imam Ali mosque.
"The Mehdi Army and I will keep resisting. I will stay in holy Najaf and will never leave," Sadr said. "I will stay here until my last drop of blood."
The fresh Shiite uprising poses the most serious test yet for interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi since he took over from US-led occupiers on June 28.
The US military official said Marines had killed at least 360 loyalists from Sadr's Mehdi Army militia since the uprising in Najaf erupted on Thursday.
Fresh clashes broke out in a Shiite district of Baghdad named after Sadr's father yesterday as well. The government imposed a curfew from 4pm until 8am until further notice in the sprawling Sadr City slum, home to 2 million people.
Explosions and gunfire echoed from the heart of Najaf. Smoke rose from near an ancient cemetery, scene of hand-to-hand combat in recent days, as US aircraft flew overhead.
Allawi visited the shell-scarred city on Sunday and demanded Sadr's militia back down. Sadr, a hero to Iraq's downtrodden Shiite youth, rejected the order to quit his hometown.
"In the presence of occupation, there are no politics," he said. "You can't twin democracy and occupation, you can't twin freedom and occupation."
DEFENDING DEMOCRACY: Taiwan shares the same values as those that fought in WWII, and nations must unite to halt the expansion of a new authoritarian bloc, Lai said The government yesterday held a commemoration ceremony for Victory in Europe (V-E) Day, joining the rest of the world for the first time to mark the anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe. Taiwan honoring V-E Day signifies “our growing connections with the international community,” President William Lai (賴清德) said at a reception in Taipei on the 80th anniversary of V-E Day. One of the major lessons of World War II is that “authoritarianism and aggression lead only to slaughter, tragedy and greater inequality,” Lai said. Even more importantly, the war also taught people that “those who cherish peace cannot
STEADFAST FRIEND: The bills encourage increased Taiwan-US engagement and address China’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758 to isolate Taiwan internationally The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US House of Representatives for unanimously passing two Taiwan-related bills highlighting its solid support for Taiwan’s democracy and global participation, and for deepening bilateral relations. One of the bills, the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, requires the US Department of State to periodically review its guidelines for engagement with Taiwan, and report to the US Congress on the guidelines and plans to lift self-imposed limitations on US-Taiwan engagement. The other bill is the Taiwan International Solidarity Act, which clarifies that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the issue of the representation of Taiwan or its people in
The Philippines yesterday criticized a “high-risk” maneuver by a Chinese vessel near the disputed Scarborough Shoal (Huangyan Island, 黃岩島) in a rare incident involving warships from the two navies. The Scarborough Shoal — a triangular chain of reefs and rocks in the contested South China Sea — has been a flash point between the countries since China seized it from the Philippines in 2012. Taiwan also claims the shoal. Monday’s encounter took place approximately 11.8 nautical miles (22km) southeast” of the Scarborough Shoal, the Philippine military said, during ongoing US-Philippine military exercises that Beijing has criticized as destabilizing. “The Chinese frigate BN 554 was
LEISURE: The new law adds Confucius’ birthday, the anniversary of the Battle of Guningtou, Constitution Day and Little New Year as national holidays The Legislative Yuan yesterday passed new legislation adding four national holidays and making Workers’ Day a national holiday for all sectors. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party used their combined majority in the legislature to push the jointly proposed draft through its third and final reading. This new law supersedes the existing regulations for the implementation of memorial days and state holidays, which are administered by the Ministry of the Interior. The new law recognizes Confucius’ birthday on Sept. 28, the anniversary of the Battle of Guningtou on Oct. 25, Constitution Day on Dec. 25 and “Little New Year,”
RSS