Jordan does not allow guests

Even if they are relatives of Saddam Hussein

Jordan yesterday refused to grant Iraq's request for the extradition of Raghad Hussein al-Tikriti, Saddam Hussein's eldest daughter. Jordanian Prime Minister Maarouf al-Bakhit said she was "a guest of the royal family and is under its protection in accordance with Arab tradition as an asylum seeker." The prime minister clarified that Ms. Hussein and her five children “are not involved in political activities” and their presence in Jordan is “explained for humanitarian reasons.”

The day before, Iraqi authorities released a list of 41 names of “most wanted criminals” and called on neighboring countries to facilitate their extradition. Such lists have been published before, but Raghad Hussein and her mother Sajida Khairallah Talfah, Saddam's first wife, found themselves in the same company with the leaders of Iraqi al-Qaeda for the first time. The women were accused of financial assistance to terrorists, involvement in murders during Saddam's reign, ordering the use of torture against unwanted people and embezzlement of public funds.

Ragad, born around 1967, fled with her mother and two younger sisters to Amman from Baghdad captured by the Americans in the spring of 2003. According to her recollections, she did this on her father’s orders “in a small car from his collection” with a machine gun in her hands. In Jordan, the women assembled a team of lawyers, the core of which is still defending Saddam in court from charges of crimes against humanity. Raghad, while acknowledging that her father "didn't care much about human rights," has recently called on the United States to show humanity to his family.

Sajida moves between Jordan, Syria and Qatar, whose head, Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani, granted her a residence permit in the emirate in the spring of 2004. A cousin and the same age as 69-year-old Saddam, she has been divorced from him since the mid-1990s after almost 40 years of marriage. Their marriage produced sons Uday and Qusey, as well as daughters Ragad, Rana and Gala. The three Hussein sisters now have 11 children.

Uday, Qusay and his son Mustafa were killed in Iraq in a battle with the Americans in July 2003. It was reported that Saddam also has a third son, 16-year-old Ali, from his marriage to Samira Shahbandar, who comes from a noble Syrian-Iraqi family. The at-Tikriti clan preferred not to talk about this child. Last year, Raghad announced to reporters that Ali was her own child, and not her half-brother.

Alexey SLOBODIN