Chalabi Charges Dropped?

Christopher Allbritton is reporting, firsthand, the following exchange at a press conference Chalabi held after surviving an attempt on his life.

What the hell? I went to the — I assumed — stupendously boring Ahmed Chalabi press conference this afternoon and it went something like this:

Chalabi: I was attacked this morning, but I’m fine, thanks.
Question: Can you tell us about the counterfeiting charges against you and the murder rap against your nephew?
Chalabi: Oh, those… (chuckle.) They were reduced to a summons. I went to the judge (al-Malaki) today and all charges have been dropped against us.

This was in Arabic, and I’m obviously paraphrasing, but that was the gist of it. But jeeze; what the hell? Dropped charges? I’ve got a call in to al-Malaki, but so far, no response on this. I wonder if it’s just a translation error. Very weird.

Obviously it's not Chalabi who makes those decisions, and such a claim needs to be investigated, but if it's true, why?

[UPDATE] Both Reuters and Al Jazeera are reporting the same news.

Curiouser and curiouser.