UK'S GEORGE GALLOWAY REFUTES NEW OIL SCANDAL CLAIMS
Mon Oct 24 2005 19:52:44 ET
George Galloway has strongly refuted new allegations that he pocketed money from Saddam Hussein's scandal ridden oil-for-food programme and lied about it under oath.
The US Senate committee investigating the Respect MP's alleged involvement in the saga claims to have discovered �85,000 (150,000 dollars) in Iraqi oil money in his wife's bank account.
Mr Galloway may face criminal charges if found to have given false testimony to the committee when he defended himself against similar claims in a passionate showdown earlier this year.
The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations has accused him of giving "false and misleading testimony" at the May 17 hearing.
Mr Galloway, who used the headline-grabbing appearance as the basis for a new book, denied being an oil trader, soliciting oil allocations or instructing anyone to do so on his behalf.
But Republican Senator Norm Coleman, who chairs the committee, claims to have obtained new evidence proving that Saddam's regime granted oil allocations to the Bethnal Green and Bow MP and his Mariam Appeal fund.
The committee's new report accuses Mr Galloway of personally soliciting and being granted eight oil allocations totalling 23 million barrels from the Hussein government between 1999 and 2003.
It claims that his estranged wife, Dr Amineh Abu-Zayyad, received approximately �85,000 (150,000 dollars) in connection with one allocation of oil.
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