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US-backed Iraqi police take over Chalabi's Baghdad office
DOHA (AFP) - US-backed Iraqi police forces raided the Baghdad office of the Iraqi National Congress of disgraced Pentagon favorite Ahmed Chalabi and expelled party members, an INC official said.
"Residential homes and offices affiliated to the INC were attacked yesterday. Today ... the locality (Baghdad office) was besieged by US and Iraqi forces. They then raided the place, which is referred to in Baghdad as 'Chinese House' and is now occupied," Mithal al-Alusi told Al-Jazeera news channel.
"All elements (party members) were driven out. In other words, the place was occupied and seized," he said.
The raid came more than two weeks after Chalabi returned to Iraq (news - web sites) to face an arrest warrant for banknote forgery but his political party refused to vacate its entire Baghdad headquarters as demanded by the government.
INC officials moved out of a former Iraqi secret service building, but refused to leave the adjacent Chinese House, which used to belong to ousted president Saddam Hussein (news - web sites).
Alusi claimed that Friday's raid, following the "contrived charges" against Chalabi, were part of the "price" the INC was paying for its policies, including its insistence on the restoration of Iraqi sovereignty.
He accused the interim government of trying to "liquidate patriotic opposition politicians," and said that while Chalabi was prepared to face the charges, "we have been told by the judiciary and the lawyers that the warrant (for his arrest) is flimsy."
Judge Zuhair al-Maliky earlier this month issued the warrant for Chalabi's arrest along with that of nephew Salem Chalabi over murder charges.
Salem, who heads the Iraq Special Tribunal, has said the charges against him were a deliberate ploy to damage the court's work in overseeing the trials of Saddam and key lieutenants.
In 1992, Chalabi was sentenced to 22 years in prison in absentia in Jordan for fraud and embezzlement after his Petra Bank went bankrupt, 12 years following its setup.
Chalabi has dismissed the case as a conspiracy orchestrated by Saddam's regime, the Jordanian government and Mohammed Said Nabulsi, head of the Jordanian central bank.
According to The New York Times, Chalabi has filed a lawsuit in Washington against his conviction in Jordan.
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