Iraq official: VICE PRESIDENT sentenced to death

Iraq's Sunni Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi, who fled the country months ago, was sentenced to death Sunday, an official said.

Al-Hashimi was sentenced to hang "because he was involved directly in killing a female lawyer and a general with the Iraqi army," said Abdul Sattar al-Berqdar, a spokesman for Iraq's Supreme Judicial Council.

"There are many other charges against al-Hashimi, but this is one of the charges he was convicted of," al-Berqdar said.

Al-Hashimi denies the charges, which include the accusation that the ran death squads. He called the accusations part of a "black comedy" in February.

"Everybody knows that my case is a political case, from beginning to end, and that the charges against me are fabricated, and far from the truth," al-Hashimi said in May.

The death sentence raises the stakes in the controversy around Iraq's top Sunni Muslim politician, who accuses the country's Shiite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki of pushing the country towards a religious divide.

The arrest warrant for al-Hashimi was issued soon after his Iraqiya party announced it would boycott Parliament, saying al-Maliki was cutting it out of the decision-making process.

His Sunni-majority party has since ended its boycott, though al-Hashimi remains a fugitive.

One of his political allies said Sunday that he did not receive a fair trial because he was not in Baghdad for it.

Nada al-Jbouri, a lawmaker in Iraqiya bloc, also criticized the timing of the sentence, as "Iraq is preparing for a big national reconciliation in the near future in order to achieve stability in this country."