Iraq politician Chalabi returns to Baghdad, says aide

AFP ^ | 8-11-04

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BAGHDAD (AFP) - Prominent Iraqi politician Ahmed Chalabi returned to Baghdad, where he has been threatened with arrest on money counterfeiting charges, said a senior aide in his party.

"He is back home among his folks," Mithal al-Alusi told AFP. "He will shower, have some tea and then resume his national duties."

A judge said on Monday that Chalabi would be arrested upon arrival in Iraq to face the charges against him.

Alusi also said Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress (INC) party had vacated one of the two buildings that make up its Baghdad headquarters, but would not relinquish the other, as demanded under a government eviction order.

INC officials abandoned a building which belonged to the former Iraqi secret service, but refused to leave the adjacent, so-called Chinese House, where Chalabi also lives.

"This villa is a symbol of democracy," said Alusi, adamant that the party would not budge, after the two orders, dated June 30 and August 7, were delivered by a US soldier on Tuesday.

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Mithal al-Alussi, one of the leaders of Ahmed Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress (INC) shows the press letters he received from the government at the INC's Baghdad headquarters.(AFP/Sabah Arar)

Tamara Chalabi (L), daughter of Ahmad Chalabi, listens to a question standing next to her family lawyer, John Markham (R), after announcing that her father has filed a lawsuit seeking to expose the Jordanian government for its ongoing actions against him at the National Press Club in Washington, August 11, 2004. Chalabi is a former Iraqi Governing Council member and is currently the subject of a warrant in a counterfeiting probe in Iraq (news - web sites). REUTERS/Larry Downing

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Supporters of Ahmad Chalabi look at an American chopper flying over the Iraqi National Congress headquarters in Baghdad, Iraq, Wednesday, Aug. 11, 2004, one day after the government ordered the building evacuated. Chalabi, a former Governing Council member wanted in Iraq on counterfeiting charges, has returned to the country to face the accusations, an official from his political party said Wednesday. (AP Photo/Samir Mizban)