FRASER ORDERS INQUIRY

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34087, 26 February 1976, Page 17

FRASER ORDERS INQUIRY

f/V Z Press Assn—Copyright) CANBERRA. Eeb. 25. The Australian Prime Minister (Mr Fraser) today ordered an inquiry into the visit of two Iraqi Government officials to Sydney last December, after reports that they flew to Australia to offer the Labour Leader of the Opposition (Mr Gough Whitlam), $500,000 for his party’s election funds. The Liberal-National Country Party coalition Prime Minister announced the Government investigation in Parliament after Mr Whitlam had denied publicly that he had negotiated with the Iraqi officials for campaign funds a few days before the polls.

Mr Fraser told the House of Representatives that he had ordered the inquiry because there seemed to be inconsistencies about the reason for the visit of the two Iraqi officials: one of the declared objectives of their visit was to discuss the establishment of an Iraqi Consulate-General in Svdney, hut when the officials arrived they gave their reason for the visit as “visiting relatives.”

Neither official had contacted the Foreign Affairs Department, Mr Fraser said.

Newspaper reports allege that Mr Saddam Mussein A-Tikriti, Vice-President of the Iraq Revolutionary Command Council, responded to an appeal by Mr Whitlam for campaign funds by sending his nephew, Mr Yassam AlKekriti, and the head of Iraq’s secret police, Mr Farouk Al Jezirah-Yeeyah, to Australia.