Iraqi National Congress leader Ahmed Chalabi and his nephew Salem Chalabi vehemently denied charges leveled against them in Iraqi arrest warrants issued Sunday, calling the charges personally and politically motivated.

Chalabis deny charges made in Iraq warrants

Ahmed Chalabi, the head of the Iraqi National Congress and a member of the now-dissolved Iraqi Governing Council, has been charged with counterfeiting old Iraqi dinars -- which had been removed from circulation after the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime last year, Chief Investigative Judge Zuhayr al-Maliky told the U.S.-backed broadcaster Radio Sawa.

Salem Chalabi, the head of Iraq's special tribunal that will try Saddam and other leading figures from his ousted regime, was named as a suspect in the killing of Haithem Fadhil, director general of the Finance Ministry, in June, al-Maliky said.

Both men were out of the country Sunday evening. In interviews with CNN, the Chalabis said they were not directly informed of the charges, and learned about them through the media.

Speaking from Iran, Ahmed Chalabi told CNN: "This is completely manufactured. I am heading back to Baghdad to confront it.

"Salem is the flag-bearer of the trial of Saddam [Hussein]. After all that great work he has done this is the reward he gets."

Salem Chalabi, speaking from England, said he does not recall meeting the person he is accused of threatening, who was later found dead.

"The warrant for me has to do with the fact that apparently I threatened somebody. I have no recollection of ever meeting that person. Apparently I threatened somebody who subsequently was killed," he told CNN.

Source: Agencies