Private Guards Help Former Iraqi Official Escape Custody
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
BAGHDAD, Iraq — Private guards in SUVs helped Iraq’s former electricity minister escape from a police station just outside the heavily fortified Green Zone where the dual American-Iraqi citizen was being held on corruption charges, officials said yesterday.
Ayham al-Samaraie, who had escaped once before after being convicted in October, walked out of the detention facility Sunday with private security experts who once protected him, said Faris Kareem, deputy head of Iraq’s Public Integrity Commission.
Mr. Kareem said the security agents were “foreign,” but provided no further details. It was the second high-profile escape in chaotic Iraq this month.
On December 9, Ayman Sabawi, a nephew of Saddam Hussein serving a life sentence for bomb-making, escaped from a prison in northern Iraq aided by a police officer, authorities said. A spokesman for the anti-corruption commission said officers allowed uniformed men who appeared to be security guards into the building. The officers realized later that Mr. al-Samaraie had left with the agents, he said.
