BAGHDAD (AP) — A neighbor of Iraq’s fugitive vice president testified Tuesday that he transported bombs at the request of the official’s son as hearings resumed in a politically charged terrorism trial against the politician.
Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi, one of Iraq’s senior Sunni Muslim politicians, is charged with running death squads against Shiites. In Tuesday’s court session, the neighbor said he carried explosives but did not take part in attacks.
Four of al-Hashemi’s bodyguards also faced questions about their roles in alleged attacks between 2006 and 2011.
Al-Hashemi denies wrongdoing. He considers the charges a politically motivated attack by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Critics accuse the Shiite prime minister of sidelining his opponents to consolidate power.
The case stokes sectarian sensitivities in Iraq, though it has not led to a return of the wide-scale violence of years past. It has all but shut down Iraq’s government by fueling simmering Sunni and Kurdish resentments against the Shiite prime minister.
Al-Hashemi fled the country earlier this year and refuses to return for the trial. He has been staying in Turkey, which last month granted him a residence permit. Last week he traveled to the Gulf state of Qatar. His trial is scheduled to resume Sept 9.
Violence in the north of the country, meanwhile, left three people dead Tuesday.
Among those killed was Ayad Hussein, an investigator in the government integrity commission, a body charged with fighting corruption. Police said he was shot in the northern city of Mosul as he headed to work.
Another man was gunned down as he stood near his house in the city, which is about 360 kilometers (225 miles) northwest of Baghdad.
Elsewhere, police said a car bomb exploded near a checkpoint in the oil center of Beiji, killing one policeman and wounding six people, including two police officers.
Hospital and morgue officials confirmed the attacks. All spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information to reporters.
Assailants last week broke into the home of a well-known lawyer in Beiji, like Mosul a former stronghold of Sunni insurgents, killing him and seven relatives.
Although violence has dropped in Iraq since its peak between 2005 and 2008, insurgents still carry out attacks almost daily. The level of violence has increased since U.S. troops completed their withdrawal in December.
Al-Qaida’s local branch, known as the Islamic State of Iraq, has said it aims to take back areas from which the U.S. and its local allies expelled the militants. It frequently strikes security forces and government offices to undermine the Shiite-led government’s authority.
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Associated Press writers Sinan Salaheddin, Bushra Juhi and Sameer N. Yacoub contributed reporting.
