BAGHDAD — The Iraqi High Tribunal, the special court trying ousted President Saddam Hussein, on Wednesday publicly disagreed with a U.S. decision to release Rihab Taha (known as Dr. Germ) and Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash, (known as Mrs. Anthrax) after deciding that they no longer posed a security threat.
The Iraqi High Tribunal said it would hunt them down and continue taking "judicial measures" against them.
U.S. forces are providing protection for most of a group of top officials from Saddam Hussein's government who were recently released from custody. Lt. Col. Barry Johnson, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, said that eight individuals formerly designated as 'high-value detainees' were released Saturday (12/17/05) after a board process found they were no longer a security threat
No formal charges were filed against Rihab Taha, a British-educated biological weapons expert who was known as "Dr. Germ" for her role in making bio-weapons for Saddam's regime in the 1980s or against Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash, known as "Mrs. Anthrax," a former top Baath Party official and biotech researcher.
Lawyers acting for Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash have said she is gravely ill with cancer. She was the only woman included in the US. military's list of the 55 most-wanted members of Saddam's regime and was the Five of Hearts in a deck of cards issued to help US soldiers identify fugitives. She has a master's degree from Texas Women's University and a doctorate in microbiology from the University of Missouri.
Rihab Taha was not on the US most-wanted list but was described by American officials as a former director of the Iraqi bacterial and biological warfare programme. She has admitted producing germ warfare agents but said all such weapons were destroyed long before the US invasion. Rihab Taha has a doctorate in plant toxins from the University of East Anglia in Britain, and is married to Amir Muhammad Rashid, a former Iraqi oil minister also in U.S. detention.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment