Iraqi VP handed 3rd death sentence

BAGHDAD: An Iraqi court handed the country’s fugitive Sunni vice-president a new death sentence yesterday after finding him guilty of ordering his bodyguards to attack Shiites, the latest verdict in a trial that has fueled resentment among Sunni minority.
It was the third case in which Tariq Al-Hashemi was sentenced to death since last spring. All verdicts have been delivered in absentia, since Al-Hashemi is in exile in Turkey after fleeing in December 2011.
The court also sentenced his son-in-law, Ahmed Qahtan, to death on similar charges: Planning to attack pilgrims by a car bomb last December in southeastern Baghdad.
Security forces reportedly foiled the attack and seized the car. All the five bodyguards who testified said they got their orders from Qahtan, who allegedly told them that he was passing Al-Hashemi’s orders.