Iraqi legislator: U.S. shelters fugitive

An Iraqi legislator accused the U.S. Embassy staff in Baghdad on Thursday of giving shelter to a Cabinet minister who is in hiding after being charged with murder. The U.S. Embassy denied it was involved in the case.

Secular politician Mithal al-Alusi, whose two sons were killed in an ambush against him on Feb. 8, 2005, accused U.S. Embassy staffers of trying to help Culture Minister Asad Kamal al-Hashimi.

Al-Hashimi was identified by two suspected militants as the mastermind of the attack, according to the Iraqi government. Al-Alusi said Thursday that suspects in Iraqi custody had confessed that al-Hashimi paid them $500 to kill his sons.

The minister has been in hiding since Tuesday, when Iraqi authorities, acting on a warrant, raided his home and detained dozens of his bodyguards. Al-Hashimi was not home at the time.

"The minister is still in the Green Zone," al-Alusi said Thursday, referring to the heavily fortified area in Baghdad that houses the U.S. Embassy, the Iraqi prime minister's office and parliament.

"The Embassy is giving shelter to the fugitive minister" and protecting him, al-Alusi told reporters.

After al-Alusi's news conference, the U.S. Embassy issued a statement saying it had "not been involved or intervened in the situation."

"The United States has not taken a position on the matter. This issue is for the government of Iraq to resolve in accordance with the rule of law," the statement said.

"Mithal al-Alusi's accusations are incorrect," embassy spokesman Philip Reeker wrote in an e-mail to The Associated Press. He said neither the U.S. ambassador nor the embassy were involved in the case.

Sunni politicians claim that al-Hashimi's arrest warrant is part of a campaign by the Shiite-dominated government to marginalize Sunni political leaders.

Sunni leader Adnan al-Dulaimi said Wednesday that he believed the minister's departure from Iraq "will be facilitated."

"I believe he will leave Iraq and declare his resignation," al-Dulaimi said.

Al-Alusi was a leading figure in the secular Iraqi National Congress Party of former Pentagon favorite and secular Shiite Ahmad Chalabi, but he was expelled from the party after visiting Israel. He was elected to parliament as the head of his own group, the Iraqi Democratic National Party, which holds one seat.

Directing his words to President Bush, al-Alusi said Thursday that he and the Iraqi people were "waiting for your response to order your employees not to interfere in the Iraqi judiciary."

"The same situation of that with the electricity ministry is being repeated," al-Alusi said, referring to former Electricity Minister Ayham al-Samaraie.

Al-Samaraie, who holds both U.S. and Iraqi citizenship, was convicted of corruption and sentenced to two years in prison. He escaped from an Iraqi-run jail in the Green Zone last year and turned up in Chicago, where he said the Americans helped him escape.