VP warns will leave Iraq if threatened

SULAIMANIYA / IraqiNews.com: Iraq‘s Vice-President Tareq al-Hashimy, has said on Monday that he will not turn himself in to the Baghdad Judiciary, warning that he may leave Iraq if his personal security is exposed to danger. Hashimy said from the Presidency Palace of Iraq‘s President Jalal Talabani in northern Iraq‘s Kurdish city of Sulaimaniya, in an interview with Agence France Press (AFP), that he won’t hand himself in to the Baghdad Judiciary, stressing, “I may leave the country if my personal security is exposed to threats”. “My decision stems from two reasons, the first being my personal security, following the disarmament of my bodyguards and the detention of a number of them, along with my house and office in Baghdad, that remain under occupation,” he said. “The Iraqi Judiciary Council had fallen under the control and influence of the Central Government, hence why he decided to transfer his case to Kurdistan Region, which does not fall under the pressures by the Federal Government in Baghdad,” Hashimy pointed as being his second reason, stressing that Turkey had welcomed his move there. “I don’t intend to leave Iraq at the present time, unless my personal security is exposed to threats,” he said, adding that “he is residing under normal circumstances and pushing for his case to be settled through the Iraqi Judiciary in the nearest possible time”. Iraq is witnessing a large political crisis in the background of charges against Vice-President and one of the main leaders of al-Iraqiya Bloc, Tareq al-Hashimy, of having been behind terrorist acts and a Judiciary decision for his arrest to investigate such charges, along with a decision by Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, to withdraw trust from his Deputy Prime Minister, Saleh al-Mutlaq, also al-Iraqiya Bloc leader.