Raghad Hussein

Raghad Hussein was married in 1983 to Hussein Kamel al-Majid, a high-profile Iraqi defector who shared weapons secrets with UNSCOM, the CIA and MI6. Al-Majid was killed, along with his brother, by fellow-clan members, who declared them traitors. Saddam Hussein had allegedly made it clear that although he had pardoned both al-Majid and his brother, they would lose all status, and would not receive any protection. Hussein's sister, Rana Hussein, was married to al-Majid's brother, Saddam Kamel, who suffered the same fate.[1]

Hussein bore five children to al-Majid: three sons, Ali, Saddam and Wahej; and two daughters, Hareer and Banan.

In 2003, she and many prominent Iraqi Baathists fled to Jordan where King Abdullah II gave her personal protection.

On July 2, 2006, the government of Iraq national security advisor Muwaffaq al-Rubaie declared that Hussein and her mother Sajida Talfah were wanted because they supported the insurgency in Iraq,[2] namely for financing terror movements and supporting militant groups fighting to topple the Iraqi government.[3] The Jordanian Prime Minister, Marouf al-Bakhit, made a statement that "Raghad was under the royal family's protection," and "The presence of Mrs. Raghad Saddam Hussein and her children in Jordan is motivated by humanitarian considerations. She is the guest of the Hashemite royal family (of King Abdullah II), and under its protection as a seeker of asylum in accordance with Arab tradition". Her exact location, however, has not been disclosed.[4]

On December 30, 2006, Saddam Hussein was executed in Iraq. Prior to the execution, Raghad Hussein asked for her father's body to be temporarily buried in Yemen, until coalition forces are expelled from Iraq.[5]

In August 2007, the international police agency Interpol announced that it had circulated an arrest warrant for Hussein, on suspicions that she and her aides had been assisting the insurgency in Iraq.[6] These suspicions were reflected in an August 2014 article in Spiegel Online, which proposed the title "Terror Godmother".[7] The article reports that, while living in opulence in Jordan, Hussein's fortune in the double-digit millions is used to support the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), with the ultimate goal of returning to avenging power in Baghdad. Earlier in June, Fox News Channel had quoted such an intention expressed by Hussein in an interview she had given.[8]

Hussein is listed on Iraq's most wanted list of individuals alongside 59 others. It also features 28 ISIL fighters, 12 from Al-Qaeda and 20 from the Baath party, giving details of the roles they play in their organisations, the crimes of which they are suspected, and, in most cases, photographs.[9] As of 2018 she was still living in Amman, but wished to come back to Iraq.[1]

• List of fugitives from justice who disappeared