A COUSIN and former aide to Saddam Hussein has been arrested and will face trial along with the former dictator and his other deputies, Iraqi interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said today. He told Iraq's National Council in a televised speech that Izzeddine al-Majid al-Tikriti, who was not on the US list of 55 most wanted members of Saddam's regime, had been captured last week. He gave no further details. Majid was accused by US authorities in July of funding and arming the anti-American insurgency in Iraq, a charge he denied. Majid, a former officer in Saddam's elite Republican Guard, is believed to have fled to Jordan in 1995 along with his family and his brother-in-law, Hussein Kamel, a general and son-in-law of Saddam. When Kamel, his family and Majid's wife returned to Iraq the following year, they were killed by Saddam's inner circle. Majid, meanwhile, escaped to Turkey. In recent years he is reported to have been in exile in Jordan, Britain and the United Arab Emirates. Trials of some of Saddam Hussein's aides will begin next week, Iraqi interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said today. Speaking to Iraq's National Council, he did not name the lieutenants that would go on trial or say when Saddam himself would appear in court. "I will tell you clearly and specifically that next week, God willing, the trials of the symbols of the former regime will begin," Mr Allawi said. | That'll make a nice run-up to the Iraqi election |
He added that an alleged senior figure among the foreign-inspired Islamists who are believed to be making common cause in an anti-American insurgency with secular former Saddam loyalists had also been caught. "In addition to the members of the former regime, there are terrorist elements that came from abroad," Mr Allawi said. "A person called Hassan Ibrahim Farhan Zaydi was killed. He is one of Zarqawi's people. Two of his aides were detained. "Of course he was killed in a confrontation. These were involved in major acts of destruction." |