Hussain Al-Shahristani said at a news conference in Baghdad that Qatar’s decision to host Tariq Al-Hashemi, the top Sunni official in Iraq’s government, was “unacceptable.”
“Qatar should review its position and send Al-Hashemi back to Iraq so that he stands trial,” he said.
Al-Hashemi yesterday rejected Baghdad’s demand for Qatar to hand him over, saying he enjoys constitutional immunity and has not been convicted.
"There has not been a judicial decision against me from any court, and the demand does not respect Article 93 of the constitution, which provides me with immunity," he said in the Qatari capital.
"Why do they demand that Qatar extradite me?… Officials in Kurdistan have responded to a similar request by telling them that I have immunity according to Article 93," Al-Hashemi said.
Hashemi said he will return to Kurdistan after a "tour around some capitals" which he did not name.
The visit marks Al-Hashemi’s first foreign trip since he fled to Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdish region to avoid an arrest warrant issued in December. Iraqi officials accused Al-Hashemi of running death squads against Shiites, government officials and security forces. He denies the charges, which he says are politically motivated.
The self-ruled Kurdish region has its own security forces, which means Al-Hashemi was effectively out of reach from police controlled by the central government in Baghdad. Kurdish officials have repeatedly rejected Baghdad’s requests to turn in Al-Hashemi.
The Interior Ministry last month demanded that Kurdish leaders arrest Al-Hashemi before he could flee the country. The Kurds’ refusal to do so is another point of contention between Baghdad and the regional government, who are also at odds over the north’s oil resources.
Al-Shahristani blasted Kurdish leaders for ignoring the nationwide arrest warrant and letting Al-Hashemi leave through Irbil airport.
“To allow Al-Hashemi to leave in this way represents a clear challenge to the Iraqi law,” he added.
Al-Hashemi’s trip to Qatar is likely to deepen tensions between Iraq’s government and the Sunni monarchies of the Gulf. Qatar has criticized what it calls the marginalization of Iraqi Sunnis. The strained relations are also linked to Baghdad’s close ties with Iran and its ambivalent stand on Syria’s one-year conflict.
The frosty relations were on display at an Arab League summit hosted by Iraq last week. The rulers of Sunni-led Gulf states including Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates stayed away, snubbing Iraq by sending lower-level officials in their place.
