Saddam's daughters 'to seek UK asylum'

Saddam family: Rana is back, 2nd left and Raghad back, 3rd right

Two of Saddam Hussein's three daughters are planning to seek asylum in the UK, it has been claimed.

A cousin of the deposed Iraqi president told a London-based Arab newspaper he was arranging an asylum application for Raghad, 35, and Rana, 33.

Britain was top of the sisters' list for asylum destinations, Izzi-Din Mohammed Hassan al-Majid told the Asharq al-Awsat newspaper.

But if they were refused access, they would try to start new lives in Egypt, Qatar or the United Arab Emirates.

Mr al-Majid said the two women were living with their nine children in two rooms of a trusted middle-class family's Baghdad home, having been thrown out of their palaces.

They "wash clothes by their own hands, cook their own food and clean the house by themselves and live without electricity," he said.

They wash clothes by their own hands, cook their own food and clean the house by themselves and live without electricity... they live in a severe psychological disorder

Izzi-Din Mohammed Hassan

"They live in a severe psychological disorder."

He added that neither they nor he had any idea of the location of Saddam or his sons Uday and Qusay - top of the coalition's most-wanted list.

The two women's husbands were both assassinated by Saddam in 1996 after they defected to Jordan.

Mr al-Majid, who fled the country in 1995 and later settled in London, returned to Iraq in April.

In a telephone interview, he told the paper Raghad and Rana were "very enraged" about what had happened to Iraq.

"I saw the tears in their eyes, especially when we talked about the war and the fall of the regime," he said.

Mr al-Majid said the two women blamed aides of their father for his fall from power.

"The regime fell because of the aides employed by my father, whose only interest was to stay in power and seek personal gain," he quoted Raghad as saying.

Aziz claims denied

A Home Office spokesman would not confirm what would happen if an application was received from the women.

The UK is not required to offer asylum to known war criminals or those who have breached the human rights of others

Home Office

"The UK is not required to offer asylum to known war criminals or those who have breached the human rights of others," he said.

"But I am not saying that this would apply in these two cases."

Saddam's third and youngest daughter, Hala, lived with her two sisters for a short period but later left with her children for an unknown location.

Her husband, Jamal Mustafa Abdallah Sultan al-Tikriti, has been in US custody since 19 April. He was the nine of clubs in its deck of the 55 most wanted Iraqi officials, ranked at number 40.

Earlier this year, it was reported that Iraq's deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz may be offered asylum in the UK after giving himself up the US authorities.

A military source said he could be offered asylum in return for information about Saddam Hussein's regime, but the Home Office branded the claims "ridiculous".