BAGHDAD, Iraq – Iraq has issued arrest warrants for Ahmad Chalabi, a former Governing Council member with strong U.S. ties, on counterfeiting charges, and for his nephew Salem Chalabi – head of the tribunal trying Saddam Hussein – on murder charges, Iraq’s chief investigating judge said Sunday.
Ahmad Chalabi was once considered Washington’s most likely choice for Iraqi president after Hussein’s fall, but he was never popular in Iraq and ended up without a job in the new government.
Ahmad Chalabi had significant, and controversial, influence on America’s Iraq policy before the war. His network of Iraqi exiles provided the Bush administration, and some news organizations, with reports on Hussein’s purported weapons of mass destruction programs.
Both Chalabis denied the charges, dismissing them as part of a political conspiracy against them and their family. The men were out of the country Sunday but promised to return to Iraq to face the allegations.
Salem Chalabi, 41, named as a suspect in the June murder of Haithem Fadhil, director general of the finance ministry, called the accusation “ridiculous.”
The warrants, issued Saturday, accused Ahmad Chalabi of counterfeiting old Iraqi dinars, which were removed from circulation after the ouster of Hussein’s regime last year.
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