An Iraqi Court handed down a fifth death sentence on the fugitive Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi.

An Iraqi Court handed down a fifth death sentence on the fugitive Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi.

Iraqiya state television reported on Thursday that Hashemi was given the sentence on a weapons charge.
The Central Criminal Court gave Hashemi a fifth death sentence for possession, transportation and use of silenced weapons, Iraqiya said.

Hashemi, a prominent critic of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, dismisses the charges against him and his staff, some of whom have also been sentenced to death, as politically motivated.

Hashemi, his secretary and his guards were originally accused of running a death squad in mid-December 2011 as the last US troops left the country.

He fled to Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region, which declined to hand him over to the federal government, and then embarked on a tour that took him to Qatar and Saudi Arabia, and finally to Turkey.