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The Mariam Appeal was established in 1998. The objects of the Appeal as stated in its Constitution were: "to provide medicines, medical equipment and medical assistance to the people of Iraq; to highlight the causes and results of the cancer epidemic in Iraq and to arrange for the medical treatment of a number of Iraqi children outside Iraq".

Part of the Appeal's activities were to bring a young child, Mariam Hamza, to the UK to receive treatment for Leukaemia, a cancer which the founders of the Appeal
claimed to have been caused by the programme of sanctions imposed by the United Nations and the use of weapons containing depleted uranium during and since the 1991 Gulf War.

However, by not registering the appeal as a charity Galloway relieved himself of Charity Commision oversight, the need to publish accounts and restriction by charity guidelines which ban political campaigning.

The Times reported that Mr Galloway started the Mariam Appeal with a plea on House of Commons notepaper to potential donors, accompanied by a postcard of Mariam Hamza, 4, an Iraqi girl whose leukaemia was blamed by the MP on uranium-tipped weapons used by the allies in the first Gulf War.

"The Mariam Appeal has had to guarantee the costs of her treatment which could cost up to £50,000. The appeal's target is £100,000 with the balance being sent back to Iraq in medicines and medical supplies for the children she has had to leave behind," Mr Galloway wrote.

Apart from public donations it was established that the major funders of the Appeal were the United Arab Emirates, a donor from Saudi Arabia and a Jordanian Businessman Fawaz Zuriekat . Galloway has admitted receiving in excess of £900,000 from Zuriekat in contributions.

The campaign won Galloway press coverage, first positive then increasingly negative, as allegations arose that funds were being misappropriated and used to pay his wife and driver, plus lavish spending on Galloway's regular trips to the Middle East , including first class travel, luxury hotel accommodation, and consumption of expensive champagne and caviar.

In april 2003 the Daily Telegraph reported that for three months the "Appeal" hadn't even given the leukemia patient it was founded to support her monthly £65 allowance for food and travel expenses -- while the charity spent more than £800,000 on political campaigns and expenses, including £18,000 to Galloway's Palestinian wife.

Under increasing media scruity Galloway told the BBC that the appeal was in no way a charitable exercise. "It is not a charity. It is a political campaign, and it always has been."

Galloway, however, denied that he had misused any funds raised for the Mariam Appeal and pointed out that it was not unreasonable for money from a campaign fund to be used to pay for the travel expenses of campaigners.

In April 2003 the Charity Commission received a complaint that had been presented to the Attorney General in response to a newspaper article. The complainant was concerned that the funds held by the Mariam Appeal were held for purposes which
were, or were capable of being, charitable, and that these funds (like the War-On-Want funds) had been used for non-charitable purposes, including the funding of visits abroad.


The MPs' register of interests shows that altogether the appeal paid for 14 overseas trips by the Glasgow MP between September 1999 and January 2002, during which time he visited Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Lebanon and Iraq.

The Commission concluded that "the Appeal [...] should have been registered with the Commission and placed on the Register of Charities", but was unable to obtain all the books and records of the Appeal to make more detailed enquires.

Mr Galloway, the first Chairman of the Appeal, has stated that this documentation is no longer under the control of the original trustees of the Appeal and cannot be located by them. Galloway cliams this documentation was, convieniently, sent to Amman and Baghdad in 2001 when Fawaz Zuriekat became Chairman of the Appeal.

Despite assurances from Mr Galloway that the monies received by him from the Appeal related to expenses incurred in his duties as Chairman of the Appeal the Commission established that Galloways wife, Dr Amineh Abu-Zayyad, and Stuart Halford, two of the other original trustees, received unauthorised benefits in the form of salary payments from the Appeal's funds.

The Charity Commission has confirmed that it was considering a fresh probe into a "appeal" in light of the Coleman/Levin congressional investivation findings.