Chalabis: Counterfeiting, murder........

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Registered: 03-18-2000
Chalabis: Counterfeiting, murder........
1
Mon, 08-09-2004 - 7:00am
Chalabis: Charges 'ridiculous'
They say counterfeiting, murder allegations politically motivated.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/08/09/chalabis/index.html


Former Iraqi exile leader Ahmed Chalabi and his nephew, the head of the war crimes tribunal, say they will return to Iraq to face what they have called "ridiculous" criminal charges.


Ahmed Chalabi, the head of the Iraqi National Congress (INC) and a member of the now-dissolved Iraqi Governing Council, has been charged with counterfeiting, Chief Investigative Judge Zuhayr al-Maliky told the U.S.-backed broadcaster Radio Sawa.


Salem Chalabi faces an arrest warrant in connection with a murder charge.


"An arrest warrant has been issued by the Central Criminal Court ... based upon a complaint filed by an Iraqi citizen. The investigation is ongoing and the subject is the crime of murder," Maliky said.


Both men were out of the country Sunday evening. But in interviews with CNN, they professed their innocence and said they plan to return to Iraq to contest the charges.


"I'm going back to confront those lies," Ahmed Chalabi, in Tehran, told CNN.


In London, Salem Chalabi called the charge against him "ridiculous."


"I have no recollection of ever meeting that person," he said. "Apparently I threatened somebody who subsequently was killed."


Ahmed Chalabi was a Pentagon favorite before the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and the INC received more than $27 million in U.S. funds.


But in May, Iraqi police and U.S. troops raided his home and office, and U.S. officials accused him of passing closely-held American secrets to Iran -- allegations the former exile leader denies.


In a written statement, he said he collected samples of counterfeit money while chairman of the Iraqi Governing Council's finance committee, which also oversaw the country's central bank.


"It is these samples that Iraqi police found when they illegally raided our offices last May," he said.


"The idea that I was involved in counterfeiting is ridiculous and the charges are being made for political purposes."


'Set up'

Both Chalabis said Maliky is a former member of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party who hope to derail the Iraqi special tribunal set up to try the former leader.


"Without a doubt, I'm being set up," Ahmed Chalabi said. Salem Chalabi said the charges were brought "to discredit the family and discredit the tribunal."


"I intend to return and address the charges in due course," he said.


"I also feel that the court in question has an ulterior motive, and so I'm going to request an investigation into several things about this charge itself."


One of Chalabi's remaining American supporters, Richard Perle, called Maliky a "rogue, out-of-control judge."


"He's systematically issued warrants against the INC and other members of the INC, and finally he's done it with respect to Ahmed Chalabi," said Perle, a member of the Pentagon's Defense Policy Board and a former Reagan administration official.


"It's Saddam Hussein's style of justice, and it's appalling."


Salem Chalabi said minutes of a meeting he attended on the day of the death support his case that he could not have been responsible.


As Saddam's government fell in April 2003, the U.S. military flew Ahmed Chalabi into Iraq at the head of a militia dubbed the "Free Iraqi Forces."


Soon afterward, he was named to the Iraqi Governing Council under the U.S.-led occupation.


But when the Americans began to search for Saddam's feared arsenal of weapons of mass destruction, much of the intelligence the INC supplied about the suspected stockpiles failed to pan out.


An exile who lived abroad for more than four decades, Chalabi was convicted in absentia of bank fraud in 1992 by a military court in Jordan, where he had founded a bank that failed. He says the charges were politically motivated.


After the raid on his office, Chalabi broke ties with the U.S.-backed occupation authority. But his years in exile and close ties to the United States have left him struggling to gain a political foothold in his home country.


The White House declined comment Sunday. A spokesperson told CNN the charges are "a matter in the hands of the Iraqi authorities and they will resolve it."

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Registered: 03-18-2000
Mon, 08-09-2004 - 7:38am

Chalabi says charges undermine Saddam trial


http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=561636&section=news


LONDON (Reuters) - Salem Chalabi, who heads the Iraqi war crimes tribunal trying Saddam Hussein, says that murder charges against him are aimed at undermining the trial of the former dictator.


Salem Chalabi and his uncle, leading politician and former Pentagon ally Ahmad Chalabi, were both the targets of arrest warrants issued by an Iraqi judge.

Salem Chalabi was accused of playing a role in the murder of a Finance Ministry official, while his uncle was charged with counterfeiting.

"The charges are ridiculous," Salem Chalabi told BBC radio on Monday during an interview at its studios in London. He said he had been accused of threatening a man who was later killed, but denied he had ever met him.

He said the judge who issued the arrest warrant had criticised the procedures established for trying Saddam.

"The fact that it was leaked means there was some element of a smear campaign against me, and therefore against the tribunal, trying to discredit the tribunal, which I think has happened now," he said.

"That's what is troubling me. I want to go back and continue the work. There are a large number of staff still working, trying to do the investigations. But under these kind of allegations it makes it more difficult."

He said he was in contact with Iraqi officials to receive assurances it would be safe to go home, but was worried for his safety if he were jailed.

"I plan on returning. I just want to get assurances that I will not be killed in jail or anything."


Britain 'will not extradite murder suspect Chalabi'


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/08/09/uchal.xml&sSheet=/portal/2004/08/09/ixportaltop.html


Salem Chalabi, the head of the Iraqi tribunal trying Saddam Hussein, will not be extradited on murder charges while he is in London, the Foreign Office has confirmed.


An arrest warrant for Mr Chalabi, 41, was issued last week over the murder of Haithem Fadhil, director general of the Iraqi finance ministry.


Mr Chalabi, a lawyer and the executive director of the special tribunal trying Saddam, is on a private visit to London and has denied any involvement in the killing.


Zuhair al-Maliky, Iraq's chief investigating judge, claims Mr Chalabi made a threat to kill Mr Fadhil after he accused the Chalabi family of seizing government property.


Mr Chalabi's uncle, Ahmad, a former member of the Iraqi governing council who has fallen out of favour with his American backers, has also been indicted on counterfeiting charges.


A Foreign Office spokesman said Britain does not have an extradition treaty with Iraq and could not help the Baghdad government.


He added that it had received no request from the Iraqi interim administration to arrest Mr Chalabi while he was in London.


Mr Chalabi, who was educated at Yale and Columbia universities, served as a legal adviser to the Iraqi governing council, which was disbanded in June.


He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that the allegations against him are "ridiculous" and denied even meeting Mr Fadhil.


Mr Chalabi said minutes from the Iraqi governing council showed he had been at a meeting on the day he was alleged to have threatened Mr Fadhil.


He said he would fear for his life if he was put in an Iraqi prison, where many of the inmates would be former Ba'athist supporters.


He also claimed the judge who issued the warrant against him had previously criticised him and the tribunal process trying Saddam.


He added that he believed Saddam would face the death penalty, which was reconstituted by the interim Iraqi government at the weekend.


"I'm the director of administration of the tribunal, not a judge so I can't really make these comments," he said.


"But I imagine that if he is convicted of some of the crimes and the charges against him by a judge following a fair trial I imagine they would try to institute ."

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