Fugitive Iraqi Minister Escapes With US Help, page 1

A fujitive from Iraqi justice, a former electricity minister with dual citizenship in America and Iraq, was reported to have escaped from justce with help from armed, plain-clothes Americans. He was being held in Iraq on multiple corruption charges.

www.alertnet.org
AMMAN, Dec 26 (Reuters) - A fugitive former Iraqi minister, with dual U.S. citizenship, flew to Jordan in an American plane after escaping from a Baghdad jail earlier this month, Jordanian Prime Minister Marouf Bakheet said on Tuesday.

"He came to Jordan as an American and on an American plane," Bakheet told reporters.

He did not elaborate or say whether Ayham al-Samarraie, an electricity minister in the former Iraqi transitional government of Prime Minister Iyad al-Allawi, was still in Amman.

Samarraie, who spent years in exile in the United States, was being held in Iraq on various corruption charges and was reportedly freed by armed, plain-clothes Americans.

He said he was being victimised because of his opposition to Iranian influence in Iraq and Shi'ite militias, who are accused of killing thousands of members of his minority Sunni Arab sect.

A Western diplomatic source familiar with the case and who requested anonymity said: "American secret service officials put him on board a U.S. military plane from Baghdad airport on Friday and brought him to Jordan".

U.S. embassy spokesman Lou Fintor in Baghdad said Washington was not involved in the disappearance of Samarraie, facing trial in up to 12 corruption cases.

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We have Iraqi officials claiming Americans came and took this man, we also have Jordanians claiming an American plane with a man using American papers landed in Jordan, but we have Americans denying the fact that this man was aided by USA to escape his corruption charges. He had over 15 charges in all. What could this man have done to achieve this status of "above the law"?