Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Washington Post
January 9, 2007
Pg. 11
Former Electricity Minister's Corruption Case Overturned, but Other Charges Pending
By Joshua Partlow, Washington Post Foreign Service
BAGHDAD, Jan. 8 -- Iraq's most publicly available fugitive held a news conference in the United Arab Emirates on Monday, announcing his plans to return to Chicago rather than the Baghdad jail he escaped from last month.
Aiham al-Sammarae, the former Iraqi electricity minister who escaped from an Iraqi-run jail inside Baghdad's fortress-like Green Zone on Dec. 17, told reporters at a Dubai hotel that he "didn't break any U.S. laws" and denied he was a fugitive from justice.
Sammarae, a dual U.S.-Iraqi citizen and engineer who lived outside Chicago for many years, was jailed last year on corruption charges and accused of misusing about $2 billion as electricity minister. He told reporters that he left Iraq because he was afraid for his life and that he would go to the United States if he was assured he would not face legal issues.
"All indications are that I can return," he said.
Radhi al-Radhi, head of Iraq's Commission on Public Integrity, an organization created by the United States that had been investigating Sammarae, said last month that he escaped with the help of private security agents who appeared to be American.
The Iraqi government insists it will attempt to bring Sammarae back to Baghdad, according to government spokesman Ali Dabbagh.
"There are many cases against him, and he should face these ones," Dabbagh said. Speaking of the U.S. government, Dabbagh said: "It is their job and their duty to ask al-Sammarae to come back in a different way if he is not coming back on his own."
U.S. Embassy spokesman Lou Fintor declined to comment about whether Sammarae would be allowed to live freely in the United States. But Fintor said that although an Iraqi court overturned his conviction, "we understand that there are additional charges against Mr. al-Sammarae."
Also on Monday, gunmen attacked a bus carrying janitors to work at the Baghdad airport. The gunmen killed four people and injured nine, said Raad Mohammed of the Interior Ministry. The passengers were believed to be Shiite Muslims and were attacked in a predominantly Sunni area near the airport. Reports of the death toll varied, with as many as 15 people said to have been killed.
Two U.S. soldiers were killed Sunday, one by small-arms fire while on patrol in Baghdad, and another during unspecified "combat operations" in Salahuddin province north of Baghdad, the U.S. military said Monday. The soldiers' names were not released.
More than 35 other people were killed in Iraq on Monday in shootings, bombings and mortar attacks, according to Interior Ministry officials. Police also found 24 unidentified bodies at a cemetery near Haifa Street in Baghdad, where the Iraqi army clashed with insurgents last week. They had been shot in the head and exhibited signs of torture, said Brig. Salim Hassan of the Interior Ministry.
The violence in Iraq has precipitated a massive exodus of refugees, the largest displacement in the Middle East since the flight of Palestinians during the creation of Israel in 1948, according to the U.N. refugee agency. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees requested another $60 million to help deal with Iraq's refugee crisis. About 1.7 million Iraqis have been displaced within their country, and as many as 2 million have fled Iraq, the agency estimates.
Special correspondents Saad al-Izzi in Baghdad, Muhanned Saif Aldin in Tikrit and other Washington Post staff contributed to this report.
January 9, 2007
Pg. 11
Former Electricity Minister's Corruption Case Overturned, but Other Charges Pending
By Joshua Partlow, Washington Post Foreign Service
BAGHDAD, Jan. 8 -- Iraq's most publicly available fugitive held a news conference in the United Arab Emirates on Monday, announcing his plans to return to Chicago rather than the Baghdad jail he escaped from last month.
Aiham al-Sammarae, the former Iraqi electricity minister who escaped from an Iraqi-run jail inside Baghdad's fortress-like Green Zone on Dec. 17, told reporters at a Dubai hotel that he "didn't break any U.S. laws" and denied he was a fugitive from justice.
Sammarae, a dual U.S.-Iraqi citizen and engineer who lived outside Chicago for many years, was jailed last year on corruption charges and accused of misusing about $2 billion as electricity minister. He told reporters that he left Iraq because he was afraid for his life and that he would go to the United States if he was assured he would not face legal issues.
"All indications are that I can return," he said.
Radhi al-Radhi, head of Iraq's Commission on Public Integrity, an organization created by the United States that had been investigating Sammarae, said last month that he escaped with the help of private security agents who appeared to be American.
The Iraqi government insists it will attempt to bring Sammarae back to Baghdad, according to government spokesman Ali Dabbagh.
"There are many cases against him, and he should face these ones," Dabbagh said. Speaking of the U.S. government, Dabbagh said: "It is their job and their duty to ask al-Sammarae to come back in a different way if he is not coming back on his own."
U.S. Embassy spokesman Lou Fintor declined to comment about whether Sammarae would be allowed to live freely in the United States. But Fintor said that although an Iraqi court overturned his conviction, "we understand that there are additional charges against Mr. al-Sammarae."
Also on Monday, gunmen attacked a bus carrying janitors to work at the Baghdad airport. The gunmen killed four people and injured nine, said Raad Mohammed of the Interior Ministry. The passengers were believed to be Shiite Muslims and were attacked in a predominantly Sunni area near the airport. Reports of the death toll varied, with as many as 15 people said to have been killed.
Two U.S. soldiers were killed Sunday, one by small-arms fire while on patrol in Baghdad, and another during unspecified "combat operations" in Salahuddin province north of Baghdad, the U.S. military said Monday. The soldiers' names were not released.
More than 35 other people were killed in Iraq on Monday in shootings, bombings and mortar attacks, according to Interior Ministry officials. Police also found 24 unidentified bodies at a cemetery near Haifa Street in Baghdad, where the Iraqi army clashed with insurgents last week. They had been shot in the head and exhibited signs of torture, said Brig. Salim Hassan of the Interior Ministry.
The violence in Iraq has precipitated a massive exodus of refugees, the largest displacement in the Middle East since the flight of Palestinians during the creation of Israel in 1948, according to the U.N. refugee agency. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees requested another $60 million to help deal with Iraq's refugee crisis. About 1.7 million Iraqis have been displaced within their country, and as many as 2 million have fled Iraq, the agency estimates.
Special correspondents Saad al-Izzi in Baghdad, Muhanned Saif Aldin in Tikrit and other Washington Post staff contributed to this report.