US troops took a former Iraqi minister who holds US citizenship from a Baghdad court yesterday after he was sentenced to two years in jail for misusing public money, Iraqi officials said.
The troops whisked Ayham Al Samarraie, a Sunni Arab who served in the first post-war interim government of Prime Minister Eyad Allawi, from the courtroom in the central criminal court building after he expressed fears for his life, the officials said.
Al Samarraie, a former electricity minister who had been in Iraqi custody since his arrest on charges of financial and managerial corruption in August, said earlier he was under US protection and that he was the victim of a political conspiracy by the Shiite-led government.
Iraqi government spokes-man Ali Al Dabbagh said Shiite Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki's government had demanded Al Samarraie's return and that the Americans had agreed to this. The US embassy declined official comment on the case.
http://archive.gulfnews.com/articles/06/10/12/10074177.html
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