The trial of Iraq's vice president Tareq Al-Hashemi, accused of running death squads, was postponed for a second time Thursday with the politician still in Turkey after his case sparked a crisis in Iraq's cross-sectarian government. Hashemi, a leading Sunni Muslim politician in parliament's Iraqiya bloc, left Baghdad in December when Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki's Shiite-led government sought his arrest just days after the last American troops left Iraq. Interpol is seeking Hashemi's arrest over murder charges, but he denies the accusations, which Iraqiya says are part of a campaign of persecution as Maliki seeks to consolidate power. Hashemi's lawyers want to hold the trial in a special court for senior officials, as they say the constitution allows, rather than in Central Criminal Court in Baghdad. They say the investigation is riddled with legal errors. “We presented an appeal to the Federal Court because of significant errors and mistakes in the investigation,” Moaid Al-Azia, head of Hashemi's defense team, told Reuters. The court set May 15 to resume proceedings, he said. The crisis triggered by the Hashemi case threatened to unravel Iraq's delicate power-sharing agreement among Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish blocs, and stirred fears of a return to the sectarian slaughter that engulfed the country in 2006-2007. Political blocs are now haggling about how to ease tensions over power-sharing with a national conference among the country's leaders, but some Maliki critics say they may try to seek a vote of no confidence against the Shi'ite leader. __
