Blogging from the Highlands of Scotland
'From fanaticism to barbarism is only one step' - Diderot

Wednesday 21 May 2003

Free at last! – Juad Amir Sayed emerges after 21 years in hiding in Iraq

Juad entombed himself in a basement ‘cell’ in his family home in Karada (a village about 90 miles south-east of Baghdad) in December 1981, after deserting from the Iraqi army and failing in attempts to flee across the border to Iran, a cousin with whom he hoped to travel having been executed in Baghdad.

He emerged soon after hearing about the toppling of the statue in Firduus Square of the deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein on 9th April. Only his mother (Aziza Masak Dahish), who passed food through a trap-door, and four siblings, knew of his presence.He kept in touch with the news outside by listening to the Arabic service of the BBC World Service on the radio and headphones he had with him in his hiding place.

A tragic, but nevertheless heart-warming tale – read more in this Daily Telegraph article.

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