Iraq's fugitive VP Hashemi urges Iraqis to oppose Maliki

Iraq's fugitive Sunni vice president says the terror trial that convicted him of masterminding death squads against rivals was illegitimate and is accusing the nation's Shiite prime minister of being behind it.                 

Tariq al-Hashemi maintained his innocence Monday at a news conference in Turkey, where he is in exile.                

Al-Hashemi was convicted Sunday of organizing death squads that killed a Baghdad lawyer and a government security official.               

The Baghdad court sentenced him to death by hanging.         

Iraq's fugitive VP Hashemi urges Iraqis to oppose Maliki            

Iraq's fugitive Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi urged Iraqis to oppose Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who he accused of stoking sectarian tensions; a day after a Baghdad court sentenced him to death in absentia.          

Hashemi, a senior Sunni politician, fled Iraq earlier this year after authorities sought his arrest on charges he ran a deathsquad. He accused Maliki of a politicial witch-hunt and refused to stand trial in a court he said was biased.          

"My people don't give Maliki and those who stand behind him the chance," Hashemi told reporters in Turkey.            

"They want to make this a sectarian strife. Oppose his conspiracies and provocation calmly...People should not stay silent on the unprecedented oppression in Iraq."


REUTERS/AP