PM: "Turkey will not hand over Iraqi VP Hashemi"

Turkey will not hand over Iraq's fugitive Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, who faces a death sentence against him in Baghdad, if Baghdad government would file such a request and he can remain in Turkey as long as he needs to, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said yesterday. "I'll say it very clearly. We will be willing to host Mr. Hashemi as long as he wants, and we will not hand him over," Erdogan told reporters in the capital Ankara before his departure for Azerbaijan. Erdogan also rejected accusations directed against the Iraqi vice president. "There is no truth in the accusations against him. To the contrary, Hashemi has unfortunately lost family members in Iraq. It is out of question for him to be involved in such acts. We know very well Hashemi's position and stance in Iraqi politics and it is out of question that he might have done anything that would lead to such a sentence."  A Baghdad court sentenced Hashemi to death by hanging on Sunday after a trial on charges that he ran death squads.