AMMAN/BAGHDAD, 4 July 2006 — Jordan said yesterday Saddam Hussein’s eldest daughter Raghd and her children were guests of the royal family and did not engage in any political activities. Iraq on Sunday put Raghd on the 41 “most wanted” list, along with her mother Sajida and top Baathists and alleged Al-Qaeda leaders.
Prime Minister Marouf Bakheet was quoted in local papers as saying Raghd, who had been granted asylum by King Abdallah in 2003 after she fled with her sister to Jordan after the US invasion of Iraq, was living in Jordan for “humanitarian reasons.” “She does not engage in any political or media activities. Mrs. Raghd Saddam and her children are guests of the Hashemites,” Bakheet said.
A palace official said the asylum offer by Abdallah was a traditional gesture of Arab hospitality. Raghd has taken a leading role in organizing her father’s legal defense in his trial for crimes against humanity. But officials say Raghd had abided by a request not to use Jordan as a platform to make political statements to the media.
A prominent Jordanian parliamentarian also ruled out the extradition of Raghd, saying neither the Jordanian law neither the international conventions sanction such a step. “Raghd enjoys international protection under the observed international conventions and the Jordanian extradition law of 1927,” the Rapporteur of the Public Freedoms Committee at the lower house of Parliament Jamal Dmour was quoted as saying by the official Petra news agency.
He said that the extradition law of 1927 involved “strict restrictions, stating in particular that the motive for the extradition should not be political”. Dmour dubbed as a “provocative and unethical move” Raghd’s inclusion in a most-wanted list of 41 individuals.
In Baghdad, Iraq’s National Security Adviser Mowaffaq Al-Rubaie, who disclosed the list in a televised news conference, declined to say if arrest warrants had been issued for Raghd and her mother but said Interpol had received the list.
According to a Qatari official who declined to be named, Saddam’s wife Sajida is currently living in Doha although the Qatari government, which has hosted several controversial figures in the past, has made no official comment.
Meanwhile, Iraq’s dominant Shiite leaders appeared divided yesterday over Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki’s much-touted national reconciliation plan that aims to curb violence by offering amnesty to rebels. Abdel Aziz Al-Hakim, the powerful head of Parliament’s largest bloc, told AFP he favored extending an amnesty to insurgents who may have killed US troops — an idea strongly opposed by Maliki.
“Yes they should be covered regardless of their religious or ethnic affiliations,” Hakim said when asked if he would support extending the reconciliation and amnesty plan to those who may have attacked or killed US-led troops.
—Additional input from agencies
