The Syrian government, under intense pressure from the United States and others in the international community, made its first significant concession on Sunday by handing over to the interim Iraqi government Saddam Hussein’s half-brother and former head of the Iraqi secret police, Sabawi Ibrahim al-Hassan al-Tikriti.
Iraqi officials said the move was an apparent gesture of goodwill on the part of the Syrian President, Bashar Assad.
Hassan is the last of Saddam’s three half-brothers to be captured and was 36th on the US list of 55 most wanted members of Saddam’s regime. All but 11 of the 55 have been found.
Hassan, who had a US bounty of $1-million on his head, was also wanted for alleged involvement in the present insurgency. The US placed him 29th in its list of those most-wanted in connection with the insurgency.
Qassem Dawoud, Iraq’s national security adviser, was reported by Kuwait’s Al-Rai Al-Aam daily on December 28 as claiming that Hassan had taken refuge in Syria after the US invasion of Iraq in March 2003 and was supporting insurgents, mainly financially. The interim Iraqi government requested his extradition.
Since the start of his second term, President George Bush has stepped up rhetoric against Syria, criticising it for allegedly helping the insurgency in Iraq and supporting Hizbollah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Syria’s problems were compounded this month when the Lebanese opposition accused Syria of assassinating former Lebanese prime minister, Rafik Hariri, prompting the international community to call for Syria to pull its troops out of Lebanon. Israel also blamed Syria, along with Islamic Jihad, for Friday’s suicide bombing in Tel Aviv.
The handing over of Hassan could be aimed at trying to stave off sanctions.
Hassan will almost certainly face trial for human rights abuses carried out by the Iraq secret police. The trials of Saddam and his other two-half brothers, Barzan and Watban, are expected soon.
The interim government on Sunday stressed his arrest in terms of bringing a former prominent member of Saddam’s regime to justice rather than a blow to the insurgency.
The office of the interim Iraqi Prime Minister, Ayad Allawi, said on Sunday that the arrest shows the determination to bring to justice ”all criminals who carried out massacres and whose hands are stained with the blood of the Iraqi people”.
The statement said Hassan had ”killed and tortured Iraqi people” and ”participated effectively in … many terrorist acts in Iraq”. – Guardian Unlimited Â