Turkey will not send Iraqi Vice-President Tariq al-Hashemi back to Iraq, where he has been sentenced to death in absentia, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has said.

Hashemi, who has been in Turkey since April, was found guilty of running death squads by a court on Sunday.

He was the most senior Sunni Muslim in the predominantly Shia government until he was charged last December.Mr Erdogan has said Turkey will host Hashemi “as long as he wants”.

Speaking at a news conference in Ankara, Mr Erdogan said it was “out of the question” that Hashemi had been involved in the crimes he has been found guilty of, insisting: “We will not hand him over.”

Hashemi has dismissed the case against him as politically motivated.Speaking on Monday, he said he would be willing to face a “fair trial”, but that the Iraqi courts were under Shia Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s influence. He accused Mr Maliki’s government of corruption, discrimination, and of fuelling sectarianism.

He said the US was “turning a blind eye” because of the forthcoming US presidential elections.