Mr Tony Zureikat

20 December 2005

Q700  Sir Philip Mawer: The Senate report contains evidence that Amineh received $150,000 in payments.

Mr Zureikat: She received more but the rest of the money was in cash. She used to come from Palestine through the bridge to Amman, cash in, go to Lebanon and make her deposit.

Q701  Sir Philip Mawer: So the money was paid into a bank in the Lebanon?

Mr Zureikat: No, in cash to Amineh.

Q702  Sir Philip Mawer: In cash but do you know what Amineh did with it?

Mr Zureikat: No, I think they are splitting now, they are not together any more, George and Amineh, but, yes, all their transactions in Lebanon for sure but sometimes I think in Morocco because George went to Morocco very often and Fawaz met him over there. Once Fawaz withdrew money, about 200,000 and he went to Morocco to meet with George and came back without it and George was in Morocco.

Q703  Sir Philip Mawer: Were you there when he drew out the money?

Mr Zureikat: Yes, I was there. I did not see the 200,000 but we went to withdraw money and he told me, "I am withdrawing 200,000 and I have got to go to Morocco very, very urgently, George is there." Once he withdrew money and went to Portugal and George was there. Once he withdrew money and he went to the Lebanon and George was there, okay. He never said, "I am going to pay George," but he takes the money, he goes over there, George is there, he comes back without it. Either they ate ice-cream, like I said, or they gave it to charity over there or they did business with it, paid the hotel.

Q704  Sir Philip Mawer: These are all cash payments though?

Mr Zureikat: Yes and if you go back to Fawaz's passport departure from Amman, final destination to Morocco, you will find Galloway was there. The same day Fawaz makes the withdrawal he travels. One day I dropped him at the airport, he stopped by the bank right directly at the airport and he flew from there. He did not give me the money to give to his office or to his sister. He took the money with him. That is money I witnessed. I was there. I dropped him at the airport.

Q705  Sir Philip Mawer: Do you remember when that was?

Mr Zureikat: In 2002. The end of 2002. It is easy to find out, I can look it up. I can find out exactly and on that day exactly George was in Morocco.

Q706  Sir Philip Mawer: It would be very helpful if you could identify the date for that happening, that would be splendid. Would you like to have a pause now and have a cigarette? Shall we break?

Mr Zureikat: Yes.

Q707  Sir Philip Mawer: Let's do that. It will give you a chance. I am conscious it is difficult for you.

[After a short break]

Q708  Sir Philip Mawer: We were talking about payments to Mr Galloway and you said that you believed that these were made in two ways. One was through Amineh.

Mr Zureikat: Yes. From a bank called Philadelphia, Umm-Umuthineh branch.

Q709  Sir Philip Mawer: I am sorry, what branch?

Mr Zureikat: U-M-M U-M-U-T-H-I-N-E-H—No, let me write it down.

Q710  Ms Barry: Transliteration in Arabic is always a nightmare.

Mr Zureikat: U-M-M U-M-U-T-H-I-N-E-H branch. This was a facility account for Fawaz. The assignee on the account was his cousin from his mum's side. His name was Amer (A-M-E-R) Zureikat. Amer Zureikat used to be the business manager for Fawaz for nearly ten years in Baghdad before the Memorandum of Understanding. He returned to Jordan in 2000, the end of 2000. Amer was paying Amineh from this account. I know that for sure because Amer came to me after the war to form an agreement with me to blackmail Fawaz and withdraw money from him, and I told him I would not do that for the information I had. At that time the story broke out about Galloway through the newspaper. Amer came to my house and he tried to team up with me to blackmail Fawaz.

Q711  Ms Barry: This was after the news broke about Galloway?

Mr Zureikat: Yes, after the war. I refused to do so. I said I would not do that. Amer used to pay Amineh from this account. Amer knew ten years' worth of work in Iraq for Fawaz; Amer knew about all the military issues Fawaz delivered to Iraq through Syria; Amer knew about the Syrian company Fawaz owned in Syria. Amer knew everything, plus whatever I knew. He came with me to team up with me to blackmail Fawaz and I said no. Amer went on his way and he did collect $250,000 from Fawaz.

Q712  Sir Philip Mawer: This was as a payment at that point?

Mr Zureikat: Well, Amer did receive his money from Fawaz, money he claimed that Fawaz owed him, and they settled. That was a little bit before the war. He wanted to buy a house and stuff. After the war the story broke out that Fawaz had a lot of money, and we believe on the last oil transaction he never paid it back to the Iraqis, he kept it in his account. We are not sure about it but that is what we believe, Fawaz pocketed all the money, plus the money he collected from the contracts, the food contracts.

Q713  Sir Philip Mawer: The humanitarian contracts, the food contracts?

Mr Zureikat: Yes. Amer knew Fawaz collected money for products that he never delivered because at that time the UN gave priority for contracts, stuff in transit, the contracts they were going to pay before they returned the money to the Iraqi funds. They said, "Okay, all contractors have approved LCs and they can purchase the product, either the product at the port of shipping or on top of the ship or in the free zone or some of it delivered" and they gave it priority and paid people who could bring evidence. Fawaz brought all the evidence to the UN that he had delivered and he cashed in. Some of them were true claims, some of them false claims. Amer knew that. Plus, the money he paid to Amineh. That was where the case of blackmail was created in his mind to come to me and I said no, but he threatened Fawaz and Fawaz paid $250,000.

Q714  Sir Philip Mawer: You are saying this was a pay-off by Fawaz to secure his silence?

Mr Zureikat: Yes. Amer used to be the assignee on this account. Every time Amineh came Amer paid her money. I used to get money from this account for my business with me and Fawaz, and Amer signed the cheques from this account. Fawaz did not sign the cheques, just Amer.

Q715  Sir Philip Mawer: That is the Philadelphia Bank?

Mr Zureikat: The Philadelphia Bank. Now it has been brought by Al Ahli Bank, the National Bank of Jordan. Fawaz has his VIP accounts with that bank.

Q716  Sir Philip Mawer: You were saying that Amineh was one route by which money was channelled.

Mr Zureikat: Yes.

Q717  Sir Philip Mawer: You were also saying that the other route which you believe to have existed was that—

Mr Zureikat: Cash from Fawaz to Galloway. That is why the physical evidence that the Senate has of the transactions is pennies. $150,000 or 200,000 is not big money. George has a house, a villa. Before the relationship with Fawaz George did not have any money, he was broke. He was broke. His life changed after the relationship with Iraq. He tried with the Palestinians but the Israelis were watching and he could not do anything to cash in with the Palestinians because the Israelis were there and were looking for him. Not for him, they were looking to get him on corruption or something. He could not do anything with the Palestinians; he did it with the Iraqis.

Q718  Sir Philip Mawer: Could we talk about the Mariam Appeal and what you know about that in relation to the contracts and other things?

Mr Zureikat: The Mariam Appeal was the front for everything. The activities from the Mariam Appeal started the book campaign.

Q719  Sir Philip Mawer: The book campaign?

Mr Zureikat: The book campaign, yes. The Mariam Appeal was a cover for George to keep going to Iraq. It was just a ground for him, a reason for him, a visa for him, to let Britain and the international community know he was going for that purpose, for that message, for that case. The little girl got hurt by sanctions, blah-blah-blah. The Mariam family used to get US$100 from Fawaz every month. At that time US$100 equalled nearly 200,000-plus change in Iraqi dinar, which was a huge income for a poor family like Mariam's. The average income of employees in Iraq did not exceed 20,000 or 30,000.