Pink Spider
08-05-2004, 12:31 AM
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article6627.htm
(August 4, 2004), Sydney Morning Herald
Baghdad: Iraq's top criminal court is investigating allegations that Salem Chalabi, the organiser of the war crimes tribunal that will try Saddam Hussein, threatened an official days before the man was assassinated.
Mr Chalabi, whose uncle is the former Governing Council member Ahmad Chalabi, is accused of attempting to intimidate Haitham Fadhil, a Finance Ministry official who was investigating the Chalabi family's property holdings when he was killed in May.
Salem Chalabi, 41, denied any involvement in the murder and dismissed the allegations as designed to remove him as executive director of the Iraqi Special Tribunal, where officials of the former regime will be tried for crimes against humanity.
The investigation began after the shooting of Haitham Fadhil, a Ministry of Finance inspector, on May 28. He was preparing a report that concluded that members of the Chalabi family and their political party, the Iraqi National Congress, had illegally seized hundreds of pieces of property after the US invasion last year.
The property included mansions, former government offices and agricultural land, a source familiar with the investigation said.
After the US invasion, several political parties in Iraq moved into premises that previously belonged to the former government, but the INC was seen by some to have been the most aggressive.
Mr Fadhil "was trying to get back those properties that belonged to the people", a source said. "He told his wife and a friend that he had received a lot of threats from Mr Salem Chalabi, who told him, 'You will not stay for long. We will get rid of you'," the source said.
Witnesses told Iraqi investigators that Mr Fadhil feared for his life and had given a copy of his report to another person for safekeeping. That copy is in the possession of the Central Criminal Court of Iraq, whose officials want to question Salem Chalabi, the source said.
(August 4, 2004), Sydney Morning Herald
Baghdad: Iraq's top criminal court is investigating allegations that Salem Chalabi, the organiser of the war crimes tribunal that will try Saddam Hussein, threatened an official days before the man was assassinated.
Mr Chalabi, whose uncle is the former Governing Council member Ahmad Chalabi, is accused of attempting to intimidate Haitham Fadhil, a Finance Ministry official who was investigating the Chalabi family's property holdings when he was killed in May.
Salem Chalabi, 41, denied any involvement in the murder and dismissed the allegations as designed to remove him as executive director of the Iraqi Special Tribunal, where officials of the former regime will be tried for crimes against humanity.
The investigation began after the shooting of Haitham Fadhil, a Ministry of Finance inspector, on May 28. He was preparing a report that concluded that members of the Chalabi family and their political party, the Iraqi National Congress, had illegally seized hundreds of pieces of property after the US invasion last year.
The property included mansions, former government offices and agricultural land, a source familiar with the investigation said.
After the US invasion, several political parties in Iraq moved into premises that previously belonged to the former government, but the INC was seen by some to have been the most aggressive.
Mr Fadhil "was trying to get back those properties that belonged to the people", a source said. "He told his wife and a friend that he had received a lot of threats from Mr Salem Chalabi, who told him, 'You will not stay for long. We will get rid of you'," the source said.
Witnesses told Iraqi investigators that Mr Fadhil feared for his life and had given a copy of his report to another person for safekeeping. That copy is in the possession of the Central Criminal Court of Iraq, whose officials want to question Salem Chalabi, the source said.