IRNA - The cousin of Saddam Hussein arrived in Britain Thursday fuelling speculation that he was organising asylum applications for the deposed Iraqi president's two daughters and possibly his wife. Officials at Leeds-Bradford airport in northern England confirmed that Izzidin Mohammad Hassan al-Majid was on board KLM flight from Amsterdam that landed on Thursday morning. His arrival came amid reports that Saddam's two daughters, Raghad and Rana, along with their 10 children, were planning to seek asylum in the UK.
| It's only the po' folks who have to seek assylum in Jordan or Turkey or Syria. |
"Both women would like to live next to each other in Leeds. That's where I live and they would like to live near me," the Sun newspaper quoted al-Majid saying. He said he believed that the UK government will take them in "because they have always been known to protect people and give them asylum". Al-Majid, who fled Iraq in 1995, claimed that the two daughters would also "definitely need financial help," saying as far as money was concerned "they are in a really bad way."
| Guess their truckload of cash didn't make out out, huh? |
Earlier this week, Saddam's cousin was reported by the London- based Arab newspaper Asharq al-Awsat to be making asylum applications and that Britain was the top of their list of possible destination. In response, the British government has appeared to leave the door open for the applications to be granted, saying only the UK is not required to offer asylum to known war criminals or those who have breached the human rights.
| I can't recall ever hearing of them being war criminals. I've always thought of them as dynastic breeding stock. |
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