| Submit your comments on this article | |
| Israel-Palestine-Jordan | |
| Followup: Iraq Fugitive Minister Arrives in Jordan | |
| 2006-12-27 | |
| Dec 26, 12:51 PM (ET) - AMMAN, Jordan (AP) - A former Iraqi Cabinet minister who escaped from a Baghdad prison this month has arrived in Jordan on a U.S. plane, Jordan's prime minister said Tuesday. Ayham al-Samaraie, a former minister of electricity with dual U.S. and Iraqi citizenship, had been serving time for corruption when he escaped mid-December. Jordanian Prime Minister Marouf al-Bakhit told reporters Tuesday that al-Samaraie "arrived in Amman as an American and on an American plane," an apparent reference to a U.S. military plane. He did not elaborate on the former official's escape. "Jordan did not receive any demand from the Iraqi authorities" for al-Samaraie's extradition, al-Bakhit said. Lou Fintor, spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, said the U.S. government was not involved in al-Samaraie's escape "in any way." He also denied in "unequivocal terms" the claim that al-Samaraie flew out of Iraq on an American plane. "There is absolutely no truth to this," Fintor said. "This is absolutely incorrect, absolutely false."
| |
| Posted by:.com |