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Chalabi ready to return to Baghdad to face fraud charges
Prominent Iraqi politician Ahmed Chalabi, a former Pentagon protege, said he would return to Iraq to respond to fraud charges against him.
Prominent Iraqi politician Ahmed Chalabi, a former Pentagon protégé, said he would return to Iraq to respond to fraud charges following the issuing of an arrest warrant against him.
Chalabi, currently in Tehran, told CNN television on Sunday that he had learned only from the press that an arrest warrant had been issued in Baghdad.
"I knew of it through the press, they didn't inform my lawyer or office," he told the cable network. "I will return to face these accusations, I will go to court."
Chalabi, a former member of the Iraqi interim Governing Council, described the charge as outrageous and "manufactured lies."
Chalabi, who heads Iraq's National Congress Party, was a protégé of US Vice President Dick Cheney and Pentagon hawks, but fell into disfavour in Washington. It was reported that senior US officials had alleged he was passing classified US intelligence to Iran.
An arrest warrant has also been issued in Baghdad against Chalabi's nephew, Salem Chalabi, on a murder charge.
Salem Chalabi is head of Iraq's special tribunal which is trying ousted Iraqi president Saddam Hussein.
Currently in London, he likewise told CNN he would return to Iraq to defend himself. He described the charge and arrest warrant as ridiculous.
Chalabi and his party were accused of providing false information on Saddam Hussein's alleged weapons of mass destruction ahead of last year's invasion of Iraq.
