Chalabi Returns to Iraq, Expecting Arrest but Vowing to Fight in Court

August 12th, 2004
by Sabrina Tavernise and John F. Burns

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Aug. 11 - Under a veil of secrecy and threat of arrest, the embattled former exile Ahmad Chalabi swept back into Iraq on Wednesday night, vowing to face criminal charges against him in court. And in a fresh sign that Mr. Chalabi is facing a confrontation with the new Iraqi government, the Iraqi police forced him from his state-owned offices.

Mr. Chalabi crossed into Iraq from Iran shortly after 3 p.m., and drove with a convoy of cars toward Baghdad, said his spokesman, Haidar Musawi. An Iraqi judge ordered Mr. Chalabi and his nephew, Salem Chalabi, arrested on criminal charges over the weekend.

Mr. Musawi declined to say whether Ahmad Chalabi had reached Baghdad, saying only that he was "safely back in his own country" and that he was expecting to be arrested. In Washington, Mr. Chalabi's lawyers took action against a 12-year-old conviction on bank fraud charges in Jordan.

In Baghdad, dozens of police officers from the Interior Ministry's Special Crimes Unit arrived at Mr. Chalabi's offices to evict his organization. Mr. Musawi said that an American had come with the officers but soon left. Working late into the night, workers hauled furniture, computers and air-conditioners out of four office buildings near a sprawling mansion that is one of Mr. Chalabi's residences.

It was the latest sign of a remarkable reversal of fortune for Mr. Chalabi, who rode into Baghdad last year dressed in camouflage and under the protection of American tanks. But some of the information his organization gave the Bush administration about Saddam Hussein's weapons programs was discredited, and his star fell. American and Iraqi forces raided his home in May, and American officials say they believe he passed classified information to Iran.

Beyond the question of whether the government of Prime Minister Ayad Allawi will arrest Mr. Chalabi - and his nephew, Salem, if he returns from London - there are a tangle of implications. Among these is whether Dr. Allawi will attempt to curb, or even dismantle, the tribunal set up by the American occupation authority to try Mr. Hussein and other high-ranking officials of the ousted government.

While Ahmad Chalabi was still in favor with the Pentagon, Salem Chalabi, an American-trained lawyer, was appointed chief administrator of the court in an order signed by L. Paul Bremer III, the head of the occupation authority, himself a Pentagon appointee. Salem Chalabi maintained tight control of the tribunal's work, shrugging off criticisms that a court established by Americans, with a staff dominated by American lawyers, would not be accepted as impartial.

Now, Iraqis familiar with Dr. Allawi say, the new prime minister is eager to stamp his authority on every aspect of government activity across Iraq, and may not look favorably on a tribunal that was set up outside the established Iraqi court system.

The trials will have a major political resonance here, and details such as the timing of the trials, the choice of judges and prosecutors, the charges, and above all who will be tried among the ousted leaders, and who, if any, will be freed will be important to any Iraqi government.

With Salem Chalabi unlikely to be able to resume his work at the tribunal, and stripped of his uncle's political protection, some Iraqi lawyers believe, the tribunal might be reconfigured to give the Justice Ministry greater influence, the kind it has over other courts.

A hint of this has come in remarks made to reporters by Zuhair al-Maliky, the investigative judge who issued the arrest warrants for the two Chalabis. In an interview last week, he was harshly critical of Salem Chalabi and of the tribunal. "In defense of Saddam and the others, the lawyers will say that the court was established by the Governing Council, which was appointed by the Americans; and that the judges were appointed by Mr. Salem Chalabi, who had lived outside of Iraq almost all of his life," Judge Maliky said.

The Chalabis, for their parts, contend that Judge Maliky was appointed by Americans, and is himself an American puppet.

Ahmad Chalabi has been working to remake himself politically. The suit his lawyers filed in Washington, challenging his 1992 conviction on bank fraud charges in Amman, was one effort to improve his battered reputation.

Marissa Khurma, a spokeswoman for the Jordanian Embassy, said the government was surprised by the suit but had not received a copy and could not comment.

The case involves the Petra Bank in Amman, which Mr. Chalabi founded in 1977 with encouragement from the Jordanian royal family. It grew to be the second largest bank in Jordan, with a branch in Washington.

But in 1989, the Jordanian government issued an arrest warrant for Mr. Chalabi, who fled the country. An Arthur Anderson audit showed that several hundred million dollars were missing from the bank, and a military tribunal convicted Mr. Chalabi in absentia of embezzlement, theft, forgery and currency speculation, among other charges. He was sentenced to 22 years of hard labor and ordered to repay $230 million.

The suit filed Wednesday accuses others of taking the money, naming as defendants Saeed el-Nabulsi, former director of Jordan's Central Bank; and Mudhar Badran, the former Jordanian prime minister. It says that Jordan convicted Mr. Chalabi as a punishment for his opposition to Mr. Hussein and fear that he would disclose information about illegal Jordanian arms sales to Iraq. And it adds a dramatic twist, saying the Jordanian authorities sought to arrest Mr. Chalabi so they could turn him over to Iraqi secret service agents. "This order was part of a plot to have him kidnapped by members of the Iraqi Mukhabarat and taken from Jordan to Baghdad, where, like many other dissidents before him, he would have been tortured and killed," the suit states.

Despite the day's troubles, there were signs that Mr. Chalabi might be enjoying the new attention. In an appeal to poor Shiites, his staff printed posters with his face and the words, "We'll be back to stop the massacre at Najaf," the city where the rebel Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr has been under siege by American and Iraqi forces since last week.

As for Mr. Chalabi's relationship with Mr. Sadr, Mr. Musawi said that the two men "are not that close. Yet."

Copyright 2004 NewYork Times Company