An Iraqi judge sentenced fugitive Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi to death by hanging for the murder of a lawyer and a brigadier general today, an AFP correspondent reported.

His secretary and son-in-law Ahmed Qahtan was also sentenced to die.

The trial, which began in May, covered the first of around 150 charges levelled against Hashemi and his bodyguards.

Hashemi accused Shiite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki of conducting a political witch-hunt against Sunni opponents, but the government said it was a judicial case. Hashemi is currently in Turkey.

The scheduled trial of was postponed for a while in May, an Al Arabiya correspondent reported.

Hashemi had continued to dismiss the charges as politically-motivated.

The charges were leveled in December after U.S. troops completed their pullout, sparking a political crisis that saw Hashemi’s bloc boycott cabinet and parliament over accusations Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki was monopolizing power.