Republican Guard applies for British asylum
An officer of Saddam Hussein’s elite Republican Guard has fled Iraq and applied for asylum in Britain, according to The Sunday Telegraph.
.The unnamed commander, a ‘Rafik’ or senior official of the dethroned dictator’s Ba’ath Party, initially sought sanctuary in Syria shortly after the outbreak of hostilities on March 30.
He then travelled across Europe prior to entering Britain in a lorry about three weeks ago, the broadsheet said.
An initial ‘screening’ interview had taken place in Croydon after the man gave himself up to immigration officials, the Home Office said.
The Iraqi confessed to fighting against allied forces during the 1991 and 2003 Gulf Wars.
But it remains to be seen whether the man, said to be in his 30s, is on the international war crimes most ‘wanted’ list.
Under the 1951 Refugee Convention, anyone proved to have committed a war crime could be denied asylum.
