by Sam Dagher
BAGHDAD, Aug 9 (AFP) - Disgraced former Pentagon favourite Ahmed Chalabi and his nephew Salem said Monday that felony charges pressed against them by an Iraqi judge were politically motivated and vowed to fight them despite warnings they would be arrested the moment they returned home.
Speaking from neighbouring Iran, Chalabi senior rubbished the judge`s accusations of banknote forgery, saying they concerned two dollars of sample counterfeit bills found in his home, and vowed to return "in a few days" to clear his name.
Speaking from London, his nephew Salem, who heads the Iraq Special Tribunal, said murder charges against him were a deliberate ploy to damage the court`s work overseeing the trials of ousted president Saddam Hussein and key lieutenants.
"I am going back to Iraq in a few days to face these outrageous, ridiculous and politically motivated lies," Chalabi told AFP in an interview in his hotel room in the Iranian capital.
"I will not sit idle while these lies are circulated."
Chalabi, whose exiled Iraqi National Congress is widely credited as one of the driving forces behind last year`s US-led invasion but whose star has waned as it has met growing resistance, accused an unholy alliance of Saddam supporters and his newfound detractors in the Central Intelligence Agency of being behind the accusations against him.
"The people behind this are Baathists, followers of Saddam Hussein who are focussing on me as the one most responsible for bringing in the Americans," he charged.
"But there are also non-Iraqis involved ... (Former CIA director George) Tenet and his organisation are after me," Chalabi claimed.
"Tenet is gone but I can tell you this process is continuing. They keep resorting to various tactics. Not the tactics of statesmen, but the tactics of secret agents."
Chalabi, who was a member of the interim Governing Council before the body was replaced by the new caretaker government, has been notably accused of being one of the main suppliers of flawed intelligence related to Saddam`s alleged weapons of mass destruction programme.
He rubbished the judge`s insistence that raids on his home in May had turned up "significant sums of counterfeit Iraqi dinars".
"There were counterfeit dinars in my office -- maybe one or two dollars` worth. At the time the Governing Council was still functioning and we were introducing the new currency. So we were discussing the problem of counterfeiting and I had in my possession some examples."
Chalabi`s case was boosted by the governor of Iraq`s central bank, Sinan al-Shabibi, who rejected the judge`s claim that the forgery charges had been brought at the bank`s request.
"The central bank has not lodged a complaint against any individual regarding money counterfeiting and never requested that such charges be brought," Shabibi told AFP.
In London, Chalabi junior said the allegations against him of involvement in the murder of a finance ministry official were "ridiculous" and vowed to return to Baghdad to clear his name as soon as he had assurances it was safe to do so.
He warned that the leaking of the accusations against him was already harming work of the Iraqi Special Tribunal he heads.
"The fact that it was leaked means that there is some element of a smear campaign against me and therefore against the tribunal, and trying to discredit the tribunal, which I think has happened now," Salem Chalabi told BBC radio.
"I have been hearing indirectly that there are people who want the tribunal to be a much more swift process which may not be as fair of a process that I had been hoping for."
Chalabi junior insisted he did not even know finance ministry director general Haitham Fadel, whom he is accused of having had a role in murdering in April.
Britain said there was no question of handing him over for prosecution in Iraq.
"We don`t have an extradition treaty with Iraq and we are not in a position to offer any help in matters like this," a Foreign Office spokesman said.