Chalabi returns to face charges

AHMAD Chalabi, the former Iraqi Governing Council member who fell out of favour with the US, has returned to Iraq to face counterfeiting charges, an official in his party said yesterday.

Arrest warrants for Mr Chalabi and his nephew were issued Saturday by Iraq’s Central Criminal Court. Salem Chalabi, is wanted for murder.

Ahmad Chalabi, who was in Iran when the warrants were announced, had said he would return to Iraq to clear his name.

“He is back among his people and trying to get some rest before returning to his political duties, trying to help the government and stop the violence,” Mithal al-Alusi from the Iraqi National Congress said.

Ahmad Chalabi once enjoyed strong US ties. But he had a falling out with the US and was left out of Iraq’s interim government.

His nephew, Salem, heads the special tribunal in charge of trying ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

Judge Zuhair al-Maliky, Iraq’s chief investigating judge who signed the warrants on Saturday, said it was up to the police and the Interior Ministry to carry out the warrant.

The warrant against Ahmad Chalabi accused him of counterfeiting old Iraqi dinars, which were removed from circulation after Saddam’s downfall last year.

He said he collected the fake currency in his role as chairman of the finance committee.

The warrant against Salem Chalabi named him as a suspect in the June murder of Haithem Fadhil, director general of the Finance Ministry. He said he had never met Mr Fadhil.