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Galloway faces jail for fresh corruption claims
"Galloway was anything but straight with the committee; he was
anything but straight with the American people. You heard a lot of
bombast" - Senator Norm Coleman
By Eben Harrell
10/25/05 "The
Scotsman" -- -- Story in full GEORGE Galloway could be
facing a lengthy prison sentence in the United States after a Senate
committee last night claimed it had fresh evidence his political organisation and his wife had received nearly £340,000 in
oil-for-food allocations from Saddam Hussein and then lied under
oath about the deal.
The committee said it had the "smoking gun" that proved the anti-war
activist received UN allocations from Saddam, a charge the Respect
Party MP vehemently denied under oath in May.
Senator Norm Coleman, the chairman of an investigative subcommittee,
said he will send the evidence to US Department of Justice and to
British authorities. Mr Galloway could now face charges in America
of perjury, making false statements and obstructing a congressional
proceeding. Each charge carries a penalty of up to five years in
prison and a £140,000 fine.
Mr Coleman said he had obtained evidence that Mr Galloway's
political organisation and his wife received the money from illegal
oil allocations.
"We have what we call the smoking gun," the senator said of the
findings in the 60-page report. "Galloway was anything but straight
with the committee; he was anything but straight with the American
people. You heard a lot of bombast."
A spokesman for Mr Galloway, Ron McKay, said the anti-war activist
denied the accusations and, if charged with perjury, would be
willing to appear in an American court. "Put up or shut up," Mr
McKay said of Mr Galloway's accusers, calling the report derogatory
and defamatory.
Earlier, Mr Galloway released a statement saying that although he
had not seen the report, which he called "a sneak revenge attack of
the most contemptible kind," he continued to defend himself against
allegations of impropriety.
"I have not made a penny out of oil deals with Iraq or indeed any
other kind of deal," Mr Galloway said.
"This ought to be dead, yet Norm Coleman parrots it once more, from
3,000 miles away and protected by privilege."
During a May hearing, Mr Galloway blasted Mr Coleman's subcommittee
as "the mother of all smoke screens," denying accusations that he
profited from the oil-for-food programme and accusing lawmakers of
unfairly tarnishing his name.
Mr Coleman, a harsh critic of the United Nations, said his panel's
evidence shows that Mr Galloway personally solicited and was granted
oil allocations totalling 23 million barrels from 1999 through 2003.
Those allocations could be sold for a profit.
The report also alleges that Mr Galloway's friend, Jordanian
businessman Fawaz Zureikat, funnelled money from the oil-for-food
programme to Mr Galloway's wife, Amineh Abu-Zayyad, and to the
Mariam Appeal, a political organisation that Mr Galloway established
in 1998.
Coleman said his investigators confirmed their evidence, which
includes numerous bank records, in interviews with the former Iraqi
deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz, a friend of Mr Galloway's.
©2005 Scotsman.com
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