THE Chaldean Catholic Archbishop of Erbil, in Iraq, Mar Bashar Warda, has denied allegations made in a US lawsuit that he was complicit in the kidnapping and torture of an Iraqi-US businesswoman, Sara Saleem.
Ms Saleem has filed a lawsuit naming Archbishop Warda among 16 defendants accused of being involved in undermining her business interests, and in kidnap and torture.
A spokesman for Archbishop Warda told the US news website the Pillar, which reported the lawsuit’s allegations, that he “categorically denies and rejects these defamatory allegations and will contest them vigorously”.
The Archbishop is known around the world as a prominent fund-raiser and speaker on the plight of the shrinking Christian community in Iraq.
The 56-page legal document filed in the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia has not been seen by the Church Times, but, according to the Pillar, it alleges that Ms Saleen was kidnapped in Basra in 2014, and held for a month, during which time she was tortured, before she managed to escape and flee to the US.
It alleges that the kidnapping followed her refusal to make a $2-million donation to Ahmed al-Maliki, the son of Iraq’s then Prime Minister, Nouri al-Malaki. Ms Saleem said that she was targeted after she took out a $1000-million loan with her business partner, Nizar Hanna Nasri, and his brothers, to fund a housing project near Basra.
She filed a criminal complaint about the kidnapping in 2021, and another against the Hanna brothers, regarding the loan, in 2022. The US lawsuit says that the Hanna brothers were convicted of criminally defrauding her in 2023, but were later released and acquitted.
Archbishop Warda is mentioned 16 times in the US legal documents, accused of interceding for the Hanna brothers, including “passing along a bribe”, and of being a close associate of Rayan al-Kildani — the head of the Iraqi political party Babylon Movement — who is under US sanctions for human-rights violations.
The Chaldean Catholic Church has been involved in conflict in recent years. The Chaldean Patriarch of Baghdad, Cardinal Louis Sako, filed a complaint against several bishops, including Archbishop Warda, last year, after they did not attend a synod.
Cardinal Sako has also accused the Archbishop of collaborating with Mr al-Kildani to get him removed from his post. Archbishop Warda rejects this allegation, too.
