Iraq insists VP's dead bodyguard not tortured

Claims by Iraq's fugitive Sunni vice president that his bodyguard was tortured while in custody were denied on Thursday by security forces, who said he died of kidney failure. Amir Sarbut Zaidan al-Batawi died because he refused treatment for a kidney condition, a senior Iraqi general said a day after Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, wanted on terror charges, alleged the 33-year-old's body bore signs of torture. "He died because he had a serious disease in his kidney, and he refused to be tested and to be treated," Lieutenant General Hassan al-Baydhani, chief of staff of Baghdad's security command centre, told AFP on Thursday. Asked about Hashemi's claims of holding photographic evidence of Batawi suffering torture, Baydhani replied, "It is easy for Photoshop to show anything," referring to a popular digital photo editing software. Hashemi released a statement on Wednesday in which he said Batawi, a married father-of-three, had died and his body was handed to his family on March 18, around three months after his initial arrest. "There were signs of torture in several parts of his body, including several sensitive places, a cause of savage methods used on him during the investigation," the statement said. In December, shortly after US troops completed their withdrawal from Iraq, the country's Shiite-led authorities issued an arrest warrant for Hashemi, a Sunni, on terror charges, sparking a protracted political crisis. Hashemi, who has remained in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region for the duration of the row, says the allegations are politically-motivated and Kurdish officials have refused to hand him over to the central government.