Baghdad, Iraq – An Iraqi legislator on Thursday accused the U.S. Embassy of providing shelter to Culture Minister Asad Kamal al-Hashimi, a Sunni under investigation in the 2005 assassination attempt against the lawmaker, whose two sons were killed in the attack.
Legislator Mithal al-Alusi said the minister was hiding in the U.S.-controlled Green Zone since an arrest warrant was issued against him this week.
“The embassy is giving shelter to the fugitive minister” and protecting him, al-Alusi told reporters.
The U.S. Embassy said in a statement that it had not “intervened in the situation” and that the case “is for the government of Iraq to resolve in accordance with the rule of law.”
“Mithal al-Alusi’s accusations are incorrect,” embassy spokesman Philip Reeker wrote in an e-mail to The Associated Press.
Sunni politicians claim that al-Hashimi’s arrest warrant is part of a campaign by the Shiite- dominated government to marginalize Sunni political leaders. Sunni leader Adnan al-Dulaimi said Wednesday that he believed the minister’s departure from Iraq “will be facilitated.”
