Galloway branded his suspension as "completely unjust" and "prejudicial"

LONDON, May 6 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – The British ruling Labor Party announced Tuesday, May 6, it had suspended prominent anti-war lawmaker George Galloway from holding office for allegedly urging Arab countries to fight the Anglo-American forces in Iraq.

In a letter addressed to Galloway, a staunch opponent to Britain participation in the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq without authorization from the U.N. Security Council, Labor General Secretary David Triesman informed him he was immediately suspended pending "internal party investigations."

The letter stressed that Galloway was not suspended over newspaper allegations that he was in the payroll of ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The Scottish legislator immediately hit back at the suspension, branding it as "completely unjust" and "prejudicial" to his libel action against the Daily Telegraph which propagated the allegations.

A Labor Party spokesman said the suspension was because of complaints that Galloway had brought the party "into disrepute by behavior that is prejudicial or grossly detrimental to the party."

Complaints were received about an interview Galloway gave to Arabic news channel Abu Dhabi TV on March 28 -- eight days into the war on Iraq -- in which he "seemingly invited other Arab nations to fight against the British and the American army", according to party officials.

In the same interview, Galloway reportedly described British Prime Minister Tony Blair and U.S. President George W. Bush as "wolves", although it is understood that this remark was not at the centre of the complaints.

In a front-page report from Baghdad dated April 22, the Daily Telegraph claimed its reporter had found a memo in the Iraqi foreign ministry which suggested Galloway took a slice of oil earnings worth 375,000 pounds (587,500 dollars) a year.

Galloway repudiated the claims, asserting he "never solicited nor received money from Iraq for our campaign against war and sanctions."

"I have never seen a barrel of oil, never owned one, never bought one, never sold one," Galloway told BBC News Online in a telephone interview Monday, April 21.

"From the way they have been described to me, I can state that [the alleged documents] bear all the hallmarks of having been either forged or doctored and are designed to discredit those who stood against the war," averred the anti-war campaigner.

In an exclusive interview with IslamOnline.net on December 20, Galloway asked the Arab public opinion to stand up before another puppet president or corrupt king is installed in Iraq, cautioning that the wealth of Iraq will be devoured by foreign governments.

Asking the British government to renege on its obvious falsehoods, Galloway warned of another Sykes-Picot against the Arab world.

"If you don’t want another century of slavery, of weakness and division, then you will have to stand up now because in the building I work in in London, foreigners who have never set foot in the Arab world, who know nothing of you, are deciding to make new countries," said Galloway, senior vice chairman at the Parliamentary Labor Party.

They "are deciding to break old countries, and are deciding to appoint new corrupt kings and puppet presidents whose tasks will be to rule their countries in the interest of Britain and America rather than in the interest of their own people," he stressed.