Tariq al-Hashimi

Who is Tariq al-Hashimi?

Tariq al-Hashimi is an Iraqi politician who served as the general secretary of the Iraqi Islamic Party until May 2009. Along with Adil Abdul-Mahdi, he served as the Vice President of Iraq in the government formed after the December 2005 elections for five years. He has been serving as the Vice President since 2011. As a Sunni, he took the place of fellow Sunni politician Ghazi al-Yawar. In December 2011, Hashimi fled to Iraqi Kurdistan to avoid arrest on murder charges. The Central Criminal Court of Iraq convicted him and sentenced him in absentia to death on 9 September 2012. As of April 2012, Hashimi is living in Ankara, Turkey, with the assurance that he will not be extradited.