Judge Who Sentenced Saddam to Death Seeks Asylum in the UK

The Iraqi judge who sentenced Saddam Hussein to death is living secretly in Britain after applying to the Home Office for asylum.

Raouf Abdel-Rahman handed John Reid's department one of its most politically sensitive decisions after coming to the UK with his family on a visitors visa because he feared for his life.

Mr Abdel-Rahman, who is of Kurdish origin, is thought to have arrived with his family two weeks before Saddam was hanged on December 30 last year.

“He fears for his life and the lives of family members”, Nasser al-Badri of Al Jazeera TV said.

Judges are regularly targeted by insurgents in Iraq. The Iraqi High Tribunal saw three of Saddam's defence lawyers murdered, as well as a few of the IHT's own staff.

Mr Abdel-Rahman, who headed the Supreme Iraq Criminal Tribunal that heard the dictator’s trial for genocide, also sentenced other top aides of the former Iraqi dictator to death.

Any person claiming asylum must be able to demonstrate that he or she has a “well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion" in their country of nationality or former country of residence. >>>cont

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