Iraq's Sunni vice president has asked for popular support to fight government charges that he commandeered death squads and says he will continue to defy arrest with the help of the nation's powerful Kurds in a showdown that tests the limits of Baghdad's reach.
The government's case against Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi deepens tensions in a country still splintered by Sunni and Shi'ite sectarian rivalries.
It now also threatens to draw a new wedge between Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shi'ite, and Kurdish leaders in Iraq's north who refuse to hand over al-Hashemi for trial.
In a half-hour speech from the capital of the autonomous Kurdish region in Iraq's north on Monday, al-Hashemi described the charges against him as "politically motivated" and said he would not return to Baghdad.
"I renew my determination to stand in a fair trial in an atmosphere that allows revealing the whole truth, away from any attempts of fraud or deceit or pressure," al-Hashemi said in his televised speech from Irbil. He vowed to remain in the Kurdish region.
Al-Maliki media adviser Ali al-Moussawi scoffed at al-Hashemi's speech.
"The only way is to turn himself in to the judicial authorities and stand before a court and present whatever evidence that proves he is innocent," al-Moussawi said.
Last week, a judicial panel in Baghdad concluded that al-Hashemi was behind at least 150 bombings and assassinations since 2005. The panel's findings stemmed from a review of a December warrant for al-Hashemi's arrest that accused him of paying his bodyguards $US3000 ($A2790) to kill security forces and government officials.
The warrant was announced the day after US troops withdrew from Iraq, raising eyebrows among critics who called it al-Maliki's first attempt at a power grab without fear of American interference.
Al-Hashemi was visiting the Kurdish region when the arrest warrant was announced, and has remained there ever since. The region is part of Iraq but has its own security forces and has for generations given asylum to people persecuted by Baghdad - though mostly during Saddam Hussein's regime.
Al-Maliki and Kurdish regional President Massoud Barzani have had a rocky relationship for years over how to share disputed land, oil revenues and federal funding. Barzani has shown no indication that he plans on handing over al-Hashemi to Baghdad, and officials in Irbil say doing so could worsen sectarian tensions between Sunnis and Shi'ites.
Sunnis see the attack on al-Hashemi, the highest-ranking Sunni political official in the country, as proof that they'll never be allowed to share real power in the Shi'ite-dominated country. Many Shi'ites view Sunnis as remnants of Saddam Hussein's regime with ties to terrorists.
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