Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi received a death sentence in absentia Sunday for being behind the murders of a lawyer and a security official in a move that will likely place more strain on the country’s weak coalition government.
Hashemi, one of Iraq’s most senior Sunni officials had fled the country and currently lives in Turkey. He was critic of Shi'ite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who issued the warrant for Hashemi’s arrest.
The former vice president, along with his son-in-law, were convicted of the murders of a Shi'ite security official and a female lawyer who refused to help Hashemi’s allies in terrorist cases, CNN reported.
“There are many other charges against al-Hashemi, but this is one of the charges he was convicted of,” Abdul Sattar al-Berqdar, a spokesman for the Supreme Judicial Council told the network.
Hashemi denies all charges and says they are entirely politically motivated.
“Everybody knows that my case is a political case, from beginning to end, and that the charges against me are fabricated, and far from the truth,” he said in May.
Muayad Obeid al-Ezzi, his attorney, said, “From the beginning and through all procedures it has become obvious that the Iraqi judicial system has been under political pressure,” as quoted by The Associated Press.
