Al-Hashemi death sentence risks political crisis in Iraq

THE death sentence issued by an Iraqi court against Vice President Tareq Al-Hashemi risks renewing political tensions that have paralyzed the government for months.
Al-Hashemi, who is currently in Turkey, was sentenced to hang on Sunday for the murder of a lawyer and a brigadier general, in a trial that covered just the initial of some 150 charges against him and his bodyguards.
The leading Sunni politician, who has been accused of running a death squad, yesterday rejected the conviction and sentence and ruled out returning to Iraq until he is guaranteed “security and a fair trial.”
“I am not going regardless of the time (limit). All I need is security, a fair court,” Hashemi told a news conference in Ankara.
Iraqiya, the secular, Sunni-backed bloc of which Al-Hashemi is a member and which has been at odds with Iraq’s Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki, slammed the court’s decision in a statement yesterday.
The sentence came under “widespread practices of distorting justice, including severe torture to which the accused were exposed,” Iraqiya said, in an apparent reference to Al-Hashemi’s guards.
“The conduct of the trials from the first day reinforces the belief that the decision of the special court was politicized and expected.
“The sentence was issued in absentia and in the shadow of a complex security crisis,” it said. “Instead of calming the situation, the political fronts carried out a group of repressive measures.
“These practices culminated in the political judgment on the vice president of the republic,” said Iraqiya. Iraq was hit by a series of intertwined political crises that began in mid-December last year, though the tensions seemed to have decreased somewhat in the past few months. In December, Iraqiya began a boycott of parliament and then the Cabinet, though they were lifted in January and February, respectively. Al-Maliki meanwhile sought to sack Sunni Deputy Prime Minister Saleh Al-Mutlak, an Iraqiya member who labeled the premier as “worse than Saddam Hussein.”
And an arrest warrant was issued for Al-Hashemi, who fled to Kurdistan, then traveled to Turkey.
Tensions between Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region and Baghdad centered on power-sharing and oil also flared, powerful Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr also issued sharp criticism of Al-Maliki, and various opponents of the premier sought a vote of no confidence in him. Such a vote was not held, however, and political tensions in Iraq appear to have abated compared with earlier in the year. But the Al-Hashemi verdict may reignite them.
“Yes, I think it will increase political tensions in Iraq. Bear in mind also that the relationship between Baghdad and Ankara may worsen over the coming months as well,” said John Drake, an analyst with AKE group.
“In terms of reigniting the Iraqiya-Al-Maliki crisis, it will certainly fuel tensions between the two. This could in turn lead to more public debates and parliamentary deadlock, slowing down the passing of legislation,” he said.
He also noted that “the Sunni community may feel increasingly persecuted by the ongoing moves against Al-Hashemi. Sectarian relations will also be harmed by the latest bombings so the outlook does not look good.” Iraq was hit by a wave of more than 30 attacks on Saturday and Sunday that left dozens of people dead and hundreds of others wounded.
Bringing the attacks into the political fray, a high-ranking security official yesterday said that a group linked to Al-Hashemi was behind the violence.