Mr Tony Zureikat

20 December 2005

Q640  Sir Philip Mawer: It is there in black and white.

Mr Zureikat: Black and white so this is a solicitation on George's behalf to secure business for Fawaz.

Q641  Sir Philip Mawer: Do you know when that meeting took place, can you remember, with the Ministry of Agriculture?

Mr Zureikat: One of the letters before the trip to Baghdad was signed by Fawaz, there is a copy of it in the Senate. I think I sent you a copy of it.

Q642  Sir Philip Mawer: I have not received a copy. You did mention when we spoke initially that you had some documentary evidence.

Mr Zureikat: There was a letter in Fawaz's handwriting and signed by Fawaz.

Q643  Sir Philip Mawer: I have not got a copy of that. I would appreciate a copy of it very much.

Mr Zureikat: I have them on my computer but Steve can give you copies of that?

Q644  Sir Philip Mawer: This is Stephen Groves from the Senate Sub-Committee staff, I can contact him and ask him for that. I will do that.

Mr Zureikat: I will tell him too because he asked me to speak to you. There are three key pieces of evidence that will support what we are talking about: a letter[55] signed by Ahmed Shanti, who is a UK citizen, also writing to the Minister of Agriculture reminding the minister about the meeting with George Galloway and with reference to that meeting he submitted his offer. I have a copy of the offer that was submitted with the letter signed by Shanti, a copy of the contract mentioned in that letter to the minister and an LC, execution and cash in. This is by itself physical evidence that George Galloway was really involved in business solicitation. Shanti, who is a UK citizen, paid Fawaz €700,000 commission for that contract which is mentioned in the letter to the minister with reference to the meeting with George Galloway.

Q645  Sir Philip Mawer: Can I just for the purposes of the record get a couple of things clear. Mr Shanti, how do you spell his surname?

Mr Zureikat: S-H-A-N-T-I, he is from Gaza in origin. He is a UK citizen.

Q646  Sir Philip Mawer: He is from Gaza. The other thing was you mentioned an LC. That is shorthand for?

Q647  Ms Barry: A letter of credit.

Mr Zureikat: A letter of credit.

Q648  Sir Philip Mawer: I just wanted to be sure that was on the record.

Mr Zureikat: Yes, yes, so Shanti entered Iraq just the same month or a few days after me between October and November of that year, okay. The first meeting for Fawaz and Galloway and Shanti was there. They had the door open to Shanti to do the irrigation business. Before this minister, the Minister of Agriculture was Aziz al-Douri. The one who has fled now and they are looking for him, the second man, the man with the red face, the older one. Two weeks ago they said he had passed away and then they denied that. He was Saddam's Vice President. They are still looking for him. There is a very strong relationship between Shanti and him, okay. To verify that, I have a document with the Senate signed by Shanti paying a ten per cent kickback to Saddam's regime as citizen of the UK.

Q649  Sir Philip Mawer: Obviously the payment of kickbacks unlawfully would be a breach of the UN sanctions regime.

Mr Zureikat: You have got to find a way to get Shanti to talk as a UK citizen. I have evidence. Shanti said I gave a gift but he paid Fawaz. I did not pay Fawaz. Shanti did pay Fawaz and we can get the bank dockets. He can say I gave him a gift, but in his dealings with George Galloway he violates—as a citizen he co-operated with the enemy during the sanctions. The UK is a member of the UN.

Q650  Sir Philip Mawer: I understand what you are saying there.

Mr Zureikat: You have got to get Shanti as a UK citizen. You can subpoena him, he must talk because a big part of this is Shanti because he did pay.

Q651  Sir Philip Mawer: Do you have a contact address or number for him?

Mr Zureikat: I can get you that. Also there is a copy of his passport with the Senate and I believe he is registered now in Jordan and he and his family live in Jordan and Egypt and I think his father is connected to the Palestinian Authority or Hamas or somehow politically in there.

Q652  Sir Philip Mawer: In Palestine?

Mr Zureikat: In Palestine, yes.

Q653  Sir Philip Mawer: You mentioned two meetings with ministers of which you were aware. One was the meeting with the Minister of Agriculture and we have discussed that.

Mr Zureikat: A couple of meetings with the Minister of Agriculture.

Q654  Sir Philip Mawer: Two meetings?

Mr Zureikat: Yes.

Q655  Sir Philip Mawer: What was the second meeting?

Mr Zureikat: With the Minister of Information. It was a big tender and Fawaz wanted to win that one with a company called Thomson Thales. It is a French-German company.

Q656  Sir Philip Mawer: T-H-O-M-S-O-N and T-H-A-L-E-S; is that correct?

Mr Zureikat: Thales and the representative of this company his name was Charles, he is French or German and lives in France. The contract was for €14 million and Fawaz wanted to get it badly and the competitor of Fawaz were Iraqis from a family called al-Gohoot, Saddam al-Gohoot, and they got into trouble, so Galloway had to come and speak to Aziz and Aziz set up the appointment for them with the Minister of Information. I think the war came up and they did not get that contract but George tried so many times to secure that for Fawaz. He met with the Deputy Prime Minister, Ahmed Tawab Mulla Huweish.

Q657  Sir Philip Mawer: Can you spell that?

Mr Zureikat: Abdul Tawab (T-A-W-A-B) Mulla (M-U-L-L-A) Huweish (H-U-W-E-I-S-H). He is one of the 55 on the American's wanted list.

Q658  Sir Philip Mawer: You have given us enough, obviously, to check it.

Mr Zureikat: Galloway met with him on behalf of Fawaz. Fawaz was in trouble. He delivered radar equipment which can observe low-flying objects and he could not supply the software to run that radar. They tried hard and Fawaz was in trouble and everyone working for Fawaz was in trouble because it was a matter of war and behind closed doors they needed equipment and whatever and Fawaz could not deliver it. Galloway saved Fawaz from getting arrested in Iraq at some point by this man because he could not deliver. After the war Fawaz went to the Jordanian government and perjured papers to get a claim and collect money for a product that he had never delivered. One of them was this radar and he cashed in all the money and Galloway knows that. Galloway knew everything that Fawaz was doing in Iraq, everything.

Q659  Sir Philip Mawer: Galloway's statements to me and the Senate sub-committee and indeed to the Volcker Committee—that is the UN independent committee of inquiry into the Oil-for-Food programme—all claimed that he knew nothing about Fawaz's business activities.

Mr Zureikat: He knows everything. Me and him on several occasions were there. He witnessed it. He knows Fawaz was dealing with the military. He knows Fawaz was working with the Russians because we had dinner and vodkas with them. He was there. He cannot deny it. There is no way, you know; he was there.