Iraq’s fugitive Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi was tried in absentia and convicted of murder Sunday and sentenced to death by hanging

Iraq's fugitive Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi was tried in absentia and convicted of murder Sunday and sentenced to death by hanging.
  
A Baghdad court also tried in absentia his secretary and son-in-law Ahmed Qahtan and sentenced him to death.
  
The trial for the murder of a lawyer and a brigadier general, which began in May, covered the first of around 150 charges leveled against Hashemi, who has been accused of running a death squad, and his bodyguards.
  
Sunday hearing opened with the prosecution asking the court to condemn Hashemi to death for the two murders but to drop a charge of involvement in another top security official's killing.

The sentence was issued after about 30 minutes of deliberation by three judges.