Iraq Asks Qatar to Hand Over Kurdish Vice President Al-Hashimi
Iraq has asked Qatar to hand over the country’s Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi, who is wanted on terrorism charges and is now in Doha, according to Deputy Prime Minister Hussain al-Shahristani.
Hashimi left Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region for Qatar and is due to visit a number of unspecified countries before returning to the Kurdish region, his office said yesterday in an e-mailed statement. Qatari officials were not immediately available for comment.
Hashimi left Baghdad for Erbil in the Kurdistan region after an arrest warrant was issued against him. State-sponsored Iraqiya television aired what it described as confessions by his bodyguards saying that they were paid to carry out murders at his request. Hashimi said the confessions were fabricated and asked to be tried in Kurdistan.
Kurdish authorities should not have allowed Hashimi to leave the country because he was named in an arrest warrant, Shahristani said at a news conference in Baghdad.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-02/iraq-asks-qatar-to-hand-over-kurdish-vice-president-al-hashimi.html
More Sunni Shiite conflict in the middle east.