UK court allows Iraqi chemical weapons expert to remain

[Anthea]

Chemical weapons expert to stay in UK
Wladimir van Wilgenburg

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – A Iraqi man who was once a chemical weapons expert in Saddam Hussein's Baathist regime was allowed to stay in the United Kingdom for more than a decade, the Daily Mirror reported on Saturday

The scientist was a brigadier general in the pre-2003 Iraqi regime and claimed refugee status after arriving on a work visa after the Saddam government's collapse.

The UK Home Secretary, Priti Patel, was working to have the Iraqi man kicked out. The case then went to the Upper Tribunal of the Immigration and Asylum Chamber, which ruled in the Iraqi's favor in July.

He was allowed to stay after insisting he faced execution once ousted.

On March 16, 1988, Iraqi aircrafts launched a chemical attack on the Kurdistan Region city of Halabja, killing some 5,000 people and injuring 10,000 more. Saddam's regime used chemical weapons many more times against people in Iraq as well as Iran.

The Iraqi High Criminal Court recognized the Halabja massacre as an act of genocide on March 1, 2010.

The bombing was one of many horrific crimes committed against the people of Kurdistan during Saddam's dictatorship.

A leading British chemicals expert, Hamish de Bretton Gordon, who has advised the Kurds, told Kurdistan 24 said he did not understand this situation.

"I think the judge does not understand the situation," he said, adding that the decision was "shocking and a real blight on the fairness of the original justice system."

https://www.kurdistan24.net/en/story/25 ... in-country