Iraq’s Supreme Judiciary Council has postponed the trial of the fugitive Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi over accusations of involvement in terrorist attacks until May 10, 2012

Iraq’s Supreme Judiciary Council has postponed the trial of the fugitive Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi over accusations of involvement in terrorist attacks until May 10, 2012.

The first session of the trial was held in absentia in the capital Baghdad on Thursday.

Gun and bomb attacks struck the Baghdad area hours before the trial was due to open. The attacks were in the Harithiyah neighbourhood where the Central Criminal Court of Iraq is situated, albeit not in the immediate vicinity of the court compound. A shooting at around 8:00 am (0500 GMT) left an Iraqi soldier dead, while at around the same time, three roadside bombs wounded two police bomb disposal experts, an interior ministry official said.

Hashemi is accused of involvement in bomb attacks against government and security officials over the past years. His bodyguards also face accusations of killing six judges.

The fugitive vice president is now in the Turkish city of Istanbul and he is not expected to attend the trial.

On April 30, Spokesperson for Iraq’s Supreme Judiciary Council Abdelsattar Bayraqdar said in a statement that there are “many crimes that Hashemi and his guards are accused of and there were confessions obtained, including on the assassinations of six judges, mostly from Baghdad.”

The trial is to address the “assassination of the general director in the national security ministry, an officer in the interior ministry and a lawyer,” Bayraqdar stated.

Hashemi denies the accusations and has called for the referral of his case to the Kurdistan Region, but Iraq’s judiciary has rejected his request.