Raghad Saddam Hussein (born 2 September 1968) is the eldest daughter of former
President of IraqThe President of Iraq is the head of state of Iraq and "safeguards the commitment to the Constitution and the preservation of Iraq's independence, sovereignty, unity, the security of its territories in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution." The President is elected by the Council of...
,
Saddam HusseinSaddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...
and
Sajida TalfahSajida Khairallah Talfah , is the widow and wife of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, and mother of two sons and three daughters .She was born in 1937. She is the oldest daughter of Khairallah Talfah...
.
Biography
In 1987, she was married to Hussein Kamel al-Majid, a high-profile Iraqi defector who shared weapons secrets with UNSCOM, the CIA and MI6. Kamel was killed, along with his brother, by fellow-clan members who declared them traitors. Saddam had made it clear that although pardoned, they would lose all status and would not receive any protection. Raghad's sister,
Rana HusseinRana Saddam Hussein is the second-eldest daughter of the former President of Iraq,Saddam Hussein and his first wife, Sajida Talfah. Her older sister is Raghad and younger sister is Hala Hussein....
was married to Hussein Kamel's brother
Saddam KamelSaddam Kamel Hassan al-Majid was the second cousin and son-in-law of deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.-Biography:He was married to Rana Hussein and was the brother of Hussein Kamel al-Majid .For a time he was head of the Republican Guard...
who suffered the same fate.
Raghad bore five children to Hussein Kamel, three sons, Ali, Saddam and Wahej, and two daughters, Haris and Banan.
On July 2, 2006, the government of Iraq national security advisor Muwaffaq al-Rubaie declared that Raghad and her mother
Sajida TalfahSajida Khairallah Talfah , is the widow and wife of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, and mother of two sons and three daughters .She was born in 1937. She is the oldest daughter of Khairallah Talfah...
were wanted because they supported the insurgency in Iraq.
The Jordanian Prime Minister
Marouf al-BakhitDr. Marouf Suleiman al-Bakhit is a Jordanian politician and two-time Prime Minister. He first served as Prime Minister from 27 November 2005 until 25 November 2007 and then again from 9 February 2011 to 17 October 2011. Bakhit also held the position of Jordanian ambassador to Israel and the...
made a statement that "Raghad was under the royal family's protection" and "The presence of Mrs Raghad Saddam Hussein and her children in Jordan is motivated by humanitarian considerations, She is the guest of the
HashemiteHashemite is the Latinate version of the , transliteration: Hāšimī, and traditionally refers to those belonging to the Banu Hashim, or "clan of Hashim", a clan within the larger Quraish tribe...
royal family (of King Abdullah II) and under its protection as a seeker of asylum" in accordance with Arab tradition. Her exact location however has not been disclosed.
On 30 December 2006
Saddam Hussein was executedThe execution of Saddam Hussein took place on December 30, 2006 . Saddam was sentenced to death by hanging, after being found guilty and convicted of crimes against humanity by the Iraqi Special Tribunal for the murder of 148 Iraqi Shi'ite in the town of Dujail in 1982, in retaliation for an...
in Iraq. Prior to the execution Raghad asked for her father's body to be temporarily buried in
YemenThe Republic of Yemen , commonly known as Yemen , is a country located in the Middle East, occupying the southwestern to southern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the north, the Red Sea to the west, and Oman to the east....
, until coalition forces are expelled from Iraq.
In August 2007 the international police agency
InterpolInterpol, whose full name is the International Criminal Police Organization – INTERPOL, is an organization facilitating international police cooperation...
announced that it had circulated an arrest warrant for Raghad on suspicions that she and her aides had been assisting the
InsurgencyAn insurgency is an armed rebellion against a constituted authority when those taking part in the rebellion are not recognized as belligerents...
in Iraq.
Quotes
- "Saddam was tranquillised when captured ... He would be a lion even when caged. Every honest person who knows Saddam knows that he is firm and powerful."
-
- —Raghad Hussein, speaking to Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera is an independent broadcaster owned by the state of Qatar through the Qatar Media Corporation and headquartered in Doha, Qatar...
, December, 2003.
- ".. All families have misunderstandings and small problems, but in the end they are families"
-
- —Raghad Hussein, speaking to Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera is an independent broadcaster owned by the state of Qatar through the Qatar Media Corporation and headquartered in Doha, Qatar...
, December, 2003. [when asked about Saddam having killed her husband].
- "Sadly they are dealing with my father as if he were not human. My father has girls, and his girls have children...so they should consider the human side."
-
- —Raghad Hussein, speaking about humiliating photos of her father that appeared in British tabloids.
- "After about midday my dad sent cars from his private collection for us. We were told to get in. We had almost lost contact with my father and brothers because things had got out of hand. I saw with my own eyes the [Iraqi] army withdrawing and the terrified faces of the Iraqi soldiers who, unfortunately, were running away and looking around them. Missiles were falling on my left and my right - they were not more than fifty or one hundred metres away. We moved in small cars. I had a gun between my feet just in case."
-
- —Raghad Hussein, speaking to BBC Panorama, on her desperate flight from Baghdad.
- "They think my father has a lack of concern for human rights, but regardless of details, the Americans should be humanitarian in dealing with his family, because we are human. Saddam has three young ladies and they have children, I have five, Rana has four, and Hala has two. Therefore, our father is very dear to us. His grandchildren love him a lot. Why aren't humanitarian factors taken into account?"
-
- —Raghad Hussein in Jordan
Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan , Al-Mamlaka al-Urduniyya al-Hashemiyya) is a kingdom on the East Bank of the River Jordan. The country borders Saudi Arabia to the east and south-east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north and the West Bank and Israel to the west, sharing...
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