Fugitive Iraqi vice president Tareq al-Hashemi, sentenced to death on murder charges, said Thursday he would return home if the EU could help guarantee him a fair trial.

Fugitive Iraqi vice president Tareq al-Hashemi, sentenced to death on murder charges, said Thursday he would return home if the EU could help guarantee him a fair trial.

"My case is politically motivated and the charges are absolutely fabricated," Hashemi told a press conference in Brussels.

"Nevertheless, I now express my readiness to return to Baghdad immediately ... in (the case) the EU guarantees a fair trial," he said.

Hashemi was charged in 2011 with a series of murders of senior officials, including judges and lawyers, the day after US occupation forces withdrew from Iraq.

He was tried in absentia the following year and sentenced to death.
Hashemi came to Brussels at the invitation of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament.