Galloway faces further Iraq claims

Labour MP George Galloway faced further allegations today, with the Times claiming that he misused funds from the Mariam Appeal to finance travelling expenses.

The paper says the attorney general, Lord Goldsmith, is examining claims made in an earlier Times article that the anti-war MP pledged to use the funds to treat sick Iraqi children, but later claimed expenses for travel to the Middle East, Europe and New York.

However, the paper concedes that so far Lord Goldsmith has only asked the Treasury's solicitor's department to begin a "fact-finding" mission based on the Times' accusations.

A spokesman for the attorney general told the paper: "We are talking to the charity commission about whether anything further should be done. It's a very, very early stage."

Today's Daily Telegraph contains a second memo claiming that Saddam Hussein turned down Mr Galloway's request for more money because his "exceptional" demands were not affordable.

The Daily Telegraph claims that the second note was circulated to four of the most senior members of Saddam's regime, including the deputy prime minister, Tariq Aziz.

However, allegations that Mr Galloway took at least ?375,000 a year from the regime have been met with emphatic denials from the Glasgow Kelvin MP.

Speaking from his villa in Burgau, Portugal, he said the paperwork must have been forged as part of a smear campaign.

Mr Galloway said he may have been in Baghdad in Christmas 1999, just days before the date given on the first memo of January 2000, but argued that this showed he was innocent.

"I'm prepared for argument's sake to concede I was in Baghdad. I spent a Christmas Day either in '99 or 2000 with Tariq Aziz, which makes the point I have just made," he told the BBC's Newsnight programme.

"If I were in a frame of mind to discuss business with the regime in Iraq I would have done it on Christmas Day with Tariq Aziz rather than with a junior intelligence officer on Boxing Day. I can tell you to the best of my knowledge I haven't ever met an Iraqi intelligence officer and I have never solicited money from one."

The investigation into the Mariam Appeal was launched after a complaint was received by Lord Goldsmith.

Founded by Mr Galloway to raise money for a sick Iraqi girl, the appeal grew in to a wide-ranging campaign against UN sanctions.

The appeal's chairman and major donor, Fawaz Zureikat, was Mr Galloway's representative in Iraq, and the MP says he is likely to have been involved in the oil-for-food programme.

Mr Galloway acknowledged he wrote a "to whom it may concern letter" on Commons-headed notepaper certifying that Mr Zureikat was his representative in Baghdad.

Speaking from Jordan, Mr Zureikat told the Associated Press that he was simply a donor, a coordinator and a supporter of the Mariam Appeal, and said the Daily Telegraph memo was "fabricated".

Mr Galloway said the Mariam Appeal's accounts would now be thrown open for the first time. As the appeal is not a registered charity it has not been obliged to publish accounts.

This afternoon, he issued a statement correcting what he described as "deliberately misleading comments in this morning's newspapers about my personal property".

Mr Galloway stated that his converted farmhouse, jointly owned with his wife, in the Algarve was purchased for ?82,000 in 1998. "It is in no way capable of bearing the description worth "a quarter of a million pounds" in some of today's papers."

He denied paying the mortgage on his ex-wife's London home and owning a '?190,000 flat', or any property, in my Glasgow. He also denied that his home in south London is worth ?800,000.

"As the register of members interests makes clear, in addition to my salary as an MP I earn a substantial amount of money as a journalist," he added. "I hope my journalistic efforts are more accurate than those mentioned above."

Speaking this morning, Charles Moore, editor of the Daily Telegraph, confirmed that the newspaper had received a letter from Mr Galloway's lawyers.

On GMTV, he said: "We certainly have had a legal letter and no doubt things will go forward from there. We look forward to that.

"We will defend our journalism robustly. I think it is excellent journalism and a fantastic scoop."
Mr Moore said journalist David Blair had been acting on his own initiative when he entered the Iraqi foreign ministry.

He said: "Our journalist David Blair had the good sense to see that there might be interesting material in the foreign ministry - he didn't need anybody to tell him and nobody told him that and nobody showed him anything there either."