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Londoner held in Iraq on terrorism charges for more than a year speaks of ordeal
Miranda Bryant9 Feb 2010
A London businessman locked up in Iraq for more than a year on terrorism charges has spoken of his ordeal for the first time after being reunited with his family.
Kadhum Ridha Al-Sarraj, a sales manager from Carshalton, was held by the US in Camp Cropper, outside Baghdad, after his masters degree project was mistaken for a bomb.
The 30-year-old was arrested at Erbil airport in September 2008 after the US military found his fingerprints on a device allegedly discovered with weapons in a Baghdad house. It was actually a heart monitor he had made for his MSc project, which had been stolen from his home in the city two years earlier.
He was imprisoned in a 15 metre-by-12 metre room with up to 70 other men at Camp Cropper where Saddam Hussein was held before his execution.
Today Mr Al-Sarraj said: One of the worst aspects was to see yourself and criminals in the same place. You have to live with them and for how long you will stay there is unknown. It is difficult to describe the conditions. I spent one year and two weeks I couldn't have imagined even in my dreams.
It was very painful to both my wife and I, but we didn't lose hope. I want now to restart my normal life. Mr Al-Sarraj, an Iraqi national with a UK visa, had visited the country to sell medical equipment for supplier Matana.
He was cleared by an Iraqi court last February but not freed until October, and he could not get home until two weeks ago the US Army could not find a record of his court case, and then it lost his passport.
His British wife, research technician Shereen Nasser, 25, said: [The US Army] haven't admitted they make a mistake. The US Government does not have a proper system in place. There's no accountability. Tom Brake, MP for Carshalton and Wallington, campaigned for Mr Al-Sarraj's release along with Amnesty International. The US Army were unavailable for comment.
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Sue the US government for $1 followed by as many zeros as you can imagine
- Peter Glazier, Sao Paulo, Brazil, 09/02/2010 12:53
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