Posted on 12/25/2002 9:05:02 PM PST by Colorado Doug
The London-based "Sunday Times" reported on 15 December that Swiss authorities allowed Barzan Tikriti to return to Iraq in October despite a request by the London-based human rights group Indict that he be prosecuted for war crimes. Tikriti is the half-brother of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein; his daughter is married to Saddam's son, Uday. Tikriti is a former Iraqi ambassador to Switzerland who previously served as director-general of the Iraqi Mukhabarat intelligence agency. An Indict dossier presented evidence to Swiss authorities 15 months ago that claimed that Tikriti "had pulled out fingernails, thrown boiling water over prisoners, beaten them with cables, and administered electric shocks," the "Sunday Times" reported. The dossier also detailed the 1980 torture and death of Professor Muhammad Bakr al-Sadr, a Shiite mullah, who was "murdered with a nail that was pushed through his head." Other charges against Tikriti include the disappearance of thousands of males aged 14-70 from one tribe in northern Iraq; and statements reportedly documenting one mass grave containing up to 350 men near Kirkuk, some of whom were reportedly shot by Tikriti. "A total of 3,500 to 8,000 are believed to have been killed," the "Sunday Times" reported.
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