Global media is reporting that Iraq has demanded that Qatar hand over fugitive Vice-President Tariq al-Hashemi (aka Tariq al-Hashimi) currently in the country in what Qatar described as an “official visit”. According to a BBC report:
Iraq has demanded Qatar hand over its fugitive Vice-President Tariq al-Hashemi after he began what the emirate described as an “official visit”. Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Hussein al-Shahristani said Qatar hosting a wanted person was an “unacceptable act” and that it should “return him to Iraq”. Mr Hashemi had been holed up in Iraqi Kurdistan since December, when he was accused of financing death squads. He has denied the charges and insisted he has constitutional immunity. “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 told the AFP news agency on Monday. At an earlier news conference in Baghdad, Mr Shahristani said the Kurdistan Regional Government had committed a “clear challenge to law and justice” by allowing the vice-president to leave Iraq on Sunday. They must know that the accused is wanted by a country which is a member of the Arab League” Nouri Maliki Iraqi Prime Minister “The state of Qatar receiving a wanted person is an unacceptable act and Qatar should back off from this stance, and return him to Iraq,” he said. Mr Hashemi met the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, on Sunday to discuss “relations between the two brotherly countries and the latest developments in the region”, Qatar’s state news agency said. He would also hold talks with the Prime Minister, Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem bin Jabr Al Thani,
Read the rest here.
In December 2011, a post reported that an Iraqi investigative committee had issued an arrest warrant Monday for al-Hashimi. A series of recent and important Global Muslim Brotherhood events have been held in Qatar illustrating the increasing importance of the country to the global Brotherhood.
In 2009, a post reported that Tariq al-Hashimi had said that he was quitting the Iraqi Islamic Party (IIP) and forming a new party. The IIP is strongly tied to the global Muslim Brotherhood. According to a profile posted on globalsecurity.org:
The Iraqi Islamic Party (IIP), established in 1960, is the major Sunni political organization in the country …The party was suppressed during the regime of former President Saddam Hussein. Many of its members were forced to flee the country. The party returned to public life after coalition forces occupied Iraq. The IIP seeks to preserve the leading role Sunnis have had in running the country starting with the establishment of the modern Iraqi state in the beginning of the 20th century. The Iraqi Islamic Party was formed as an Iraqi Muslim Brotherhood organization, and conducted underground work during the Baathist period. Thee party does not considers itself a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood Group, established in Egypt in 1994, nor a political front for it in Iraq. The Iraqi Islamic Party acknowledges strong ties to the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood through political and intellectual alliances.
Another 2009 post reported that Osama al-Tikriti, the father of U.K Muslim Brotherhood leader Anas al-Tikriti, was elected as the new secretary general of the IIP.
A post from February of this year discussed reports on the continuing crackdown on the Iraqi Muslim Brotherhood by the Iraqi government.