Iraq stops paying salary of convicted fugitive VP

BAGHDAD - Agence France-Presse

Iraq's fugitive Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi. AFP Photo

An Iraqi official says the government has decided to stop paying the salary of the country’s fugitive Sunni vice president, a month after he was sentenced to death for terrorism-related crimes.
 
Iraqi Integrity Commission member Hussein al-Assadi said today the government ordered the halt starting immediately. Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi was convicted in absentia in September.
 
Al-Hashemi is one of the nation’s highest-ranking Sunni officials. He has denied the terror charges and is in exile in Turkey. A new trial on additional terror charges began last week.
 
Al-Hashemi was paid a monthly salary of 75 million Iraqi dinars ($60,000). His salary was supposed to have been reduced to about 10 million dinars ($8,500) earlier this year due to budget cuts, but al-Assadi did not know if they’d been enacted.