Jailed Ex-Minister in Baghdad Escapes; Iraqi American Faces Corruption Charges

Ayham al-Samaraie speaks at a press conference in Baghdad, Iraq Wednesday June 29, 2005. The former Iraqi electricity minister - a dual U.S.-Iraqi citizen who was jailed for corruption - escaped from police custody in Baghdad with the help of security agents he once hired to protect him, a top anti-corruption official said Monday, Dec. 18, 2006. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban) (Hadi Mizban - AP)

BAGHDAD, Dec. 18 -- Iraq's former electricity minister, a dual U.S.-Iraqi citizen who was awaiting trial on corruption charges, escaped from a police station in the heavily fortified Green Zone on Sunday with the help of private security agents, an Iraqi anti-corruption official said on Monday.

Several men wearing flak jackets walked into the police station about 2:30 p.m. Sunday and, within a quarter-hour, had taken away Aiham al-Sammarae, said Radhi al-Radhi, head of the Commission on Public Integrity, an Iraqi organization created by the United States that had been investigating Sammarae. Radhi said the men appeared to be Americans.

Sammarae was one of several Iraqi exiles who returned to rebuild the country after the toppling of Saddam Hussein's government. As the country's electrical infrastructure deteriorated, Sammarae was accused of misusing about $2 billion. In October, he was found guilty of one charge of corruption and sentenced to two years in jail. That conviction was overturned last week, but he still faces trial on at least 10 other counts.

The U.S. Embassy on Monday confirmed that Sammarae "has been reported missing" by the Iraqi police. "There are conflicting reports surrounding his disappearance," said Lou Fintor, a U.S. Embassy spokesman. U.S. troops briefly took custody of Sammarae after his October conviction because he feared being killed in jail. Iraqi authorities demanded his return.

The New York Times on its Web site Monday night cited a statement from Sammarae's lawyer, which said that Sammarae had been released on bail.

Radhi disputed that, saying that the security agents arrived in GMC pickup trucks and outnumbered the police officers, who did not put up a fight, he said.

The commission did not learn of the escape until after midnight, Radhi said. "They took all that time to inform us so they can take him out of Iraq, maybe, or a place where we can't reach them," he said.

Sammarae's Iraqi and U.S. passports are still in court, Radhi said.

Sammarae moved to Chicago in 1976 to study at the Illinois Institute of Technology but became an exile after Hussein seized control in 1979, the Chicago Tribune reported in October. He and his wife settled in Oak Brook, Ill., where he ran a nearby engineering firm.

Sammarae was appointed electricity minister in 2003 by L. Paul Bremer, leader of the American occupation authority, and remained in the cabinet of then-Prime Minister Ayad Allawi until mid-2005.

He blamed his conviction on sectarian divisions. He is a secular Sunni Arab, while Shiite politicians dominate the government. Earlier this year, a car bomb intended for him wounded his bodyguards.

Radhi said the commission and courts are investigating more than 2,000 cases of corruption, and that the accusations against Sammarae are among the most egregious. About "$2.5 billion was specified for the reconstruction, and until now electricity is getting worse," he said. "Where is this money?"

There was sporadic violence across Baghdad on Monday. A bomb exploded on Palestine Street in east Baghdad, killing five civilians, and three mortar shells fell on the southern Baghdad neighborhood of Dora, killing two and injuring three, said an Interior Ministry official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.

Also on Monday, the U.S. military reported that a soldier assigned to 1st Brigade, 1st Armored Division died from combat wounds in Anbar province on Friday, and a Marine assigned to Regimental Combat Team 5 died there Saturday. North of Baghdad, one soldier was killed and another injured on Monday when the Bradley Fighting Vehicle they were in rolled over.

The genocide trial against Hussein resumed, with the chief prosecutor presenting memos from Hussein's former office that approved chemical attacks against Kurds. Hussein rose to say that whether he gave the orders or not, he was responsible for what his subordinates did. He said he would "strike men, but I would never strike women and children."

Special correspondent Saad al-Izzi in Baghdad and staff researcher Robert E. Thomason in Washington contributed to this report.