BAGHDAD — Lawyers for Iraq’s fugitive Sunni vice president facing terror charges have quit the case in protest over not being allowed to present their evidence.

Judges Sunday refused to let Tariq Al-Hashemi’s defense team pull phone records and appointment calendars to refute earlier testimony that the vice president and his son-in-law had ordered bodyguards to kill security forces and government officials.

Al-Hashemi attorney Muayad Obeid Al-Ezzi and his team walked out of the courtroom.

“We decided to withdraw from the case as the appeals commission did not review the appeals we presented to it,”Al-Izzi, the head of Hashemi’s defense team, told reporters.

The three-judge panel immediately appointed two new lawyers for the defense. — AP