"... In announcing the trip abroad by the fugitive vice president, Tariq al-Hashimi, his office said he was on a normal diplomatic mission to meet the Qatari emir and prime minister. ..... and then return to Kurdistan. The Qatar News Agency said he would stay in Qatar for several days.But Mr. Hashimi is a figure of controversy among Shiite leaders in Baghdad. They have grown increasingly frustrated over the past three months as he has flouted their attempts to prosecute him on terrorism charges.
Mr. Hashimi fled to the semiautonomous Kurdish region in late December after the government issued an arrest warrant accusing him of using his bodyguards as a personal death squad. Since then, he has lived under the protection of Kurdish officials, who have refused to turn him over for a trial in Baghdad.
“How could they let him leave?” said Ali al-Moussawi, an adviser to Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki. “He is prevented from traveling. This is a violation. And receiving him in Qatar is a violation.”
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