Jordan studies pardoning al-Chalabi
Jordan-Iraq, Politics, 5/13/2005

Jordanian officials said that Amman is studying issuing a pardon for the Iraqi deputy prime minister Ahmad Chalabi. This will be in the course of a deal including returning back millions of dollars the accused man took from the Jordanian Petra bank.

News reports quoted the Jordanian officials as saying that the Jordanian king Abdullah II approved a request by the Iraqi president Jalal al-Talibani who visited Jordan recently to reconsider the sentence issued against Chalabi by a Jordanian court in 1992.

Arab press sources on May 1st highlighted news on a Jordanian- Iraqi agreement to settle the issue between Chalabi and the Petra Bank in a financial deal between Chalabi and the Jordanian government via the judiciary.

Jordanian officials announced following Chalabi's appointment as an Iraqi deputy premier that they will honor the choice of the Iraqi people despite their demands for trying him, earlier.

Chalabi is accused of of stealing 280 million dollars from the Petra bank and transferring this sum to Switzerland banks. He faces an imprisonment sentence in absentia for 22 years imprisonment. Four cases were filed against Chalabi who fled together with his four brothers from Jordan in 1989.

Jordanian parliamentarians asked the Interpol and the USA after its invasion of Iraq to hand over Chalabi in order to try him again in Jordan.

Previous Stories:
  Chalabi's arrest issue resurfaces in Jordan   (5/9/2005)
  Iraq returns its ambassador to Jordan   (5/7/2005)
  Iraq's president visits Amman tomorrow   (5/6/2005)

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