[Media-watch] Arrest warrant issued for Chalabi - Guardian - 08/08/2004

[Julie-ann Davies]

No mention yet of the allegations over Iran though.
JA
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4400634,00.html

Iraq Seeks Arrest of Ahmad Chalabi

Sunday August 8, 2004 8:31 PM

AP Photo NY114

By JAMIE TARABAY

Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Iraq has issued an arrest warrant for Ahmad Chalabi, a
former governing council member, on counterfeiting charges and another for
Salem Chalabi, the head of Iraq's special tribunal, on murder charges,
Iraq's chief investigating judge said Sunday.

The warrant was a new sign of the fall of Ahmad Chalabi from the centers of
power. Chalabi, a longtime exile opposition leader, had been a favorite of
many in the Pentagon but fell out with the Americans in the weeks before the
U.S. occupation ended in June.

His nephew, Salem Chalabi, heads the tribunal that is due to try Saddam on
war crimes charges.

``They should be arrested and then questioned and then we will evaluate the
evidence, and then if there is enough evidence, they will be sent to
trial,'' said Judge Zuhair al-Maliky.

The warrants, issued Saturday, accused Ahmad Chalabi of counterfeiting old
Iraqi dinars - which had been removed from circulation following the fall of
Saddam's regime last year, he said.

Ahmad Chalabi appeared to have been hiding the counterfeit money amid other
old money and changing it into new dinars in the street, he said.

Police found the counterfeit money along with old dinars in Ahmad Chalabi's
house during a May raid, he said.

Salem Chalabi was named as a suspect in the June killing of the Haithem
Fadhil, director general of the finance ministry.

Both men were reportedly out of the country Sunday.

Haidar al-Moussawi, Ahmad Chalabi's spokesman, said members of his Iraqi
National Congress had heard of the arrest warrants only through the media.

``Such a warrant has been issued, but no one called any of the accused or
gave them a chance before issuing the arrest warrant,'' he said.

``These are very bad indications about the state of justice and law in the
new Iraq,'' he said.

If convicted, Salem Chalabi could face the death penalty, which was restored
on Sunday, al-Maliky said. Any sentence for Ahmad Chalabi would be
determined by the trial judges, he said.

Ahmad Chalabi was a senior member of the Governing Council, which ran Iraq
from the fall of Saddam until the end of the U.S. occupation. But he fell
out with the Americans, and allegations surfaced that he supplied Iranians
with classified U.S. intelligence on American monitoring of Iranian
communications.