Turkey refuses to extradite fugitive Iraqi vice-president

ANKARA: Turkey on Monday refused to extradite Iraq's fugitive vice president Tareq al-Hashemi, who was sentenced in absentia to death by an Iraqi court.

"We will host Hashemi in our country as long as he wants to remain in Turkey. We will not hand him over," Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told a news conference in Ankara.