Carshalton businessman 'desperate' in Iraq terror jail

9:18am Tuesday 2nd December 2008

Comments (0)   Have your say »

The British wife of a businessman held by American forces in Iraq on terrorism charges has described her husband’s situation as “desperate" after returning from a visit to his Baghdad holding camp.

Kadhum Ridha Al-Sarraj, 29, who lives in Carshalton, was arrested on September 15 after a heart monitor he created was mistaken for a bomb.

Mr Al-Sarraj, a salesman with medical equipment supplier Matana, is being held in Camp Cropper where former President Saddam Hussein was held prior to receiving the death penalty.

Last week his wife Shereen Nasser, 24, a research assistant, flew to the war-torn country for 15 minutes with her husband - an Iraqi national with a UK visa.

She said: “Physically he is being treated okay, but he is emotionally and mentally drained.

“He said he is being interrogated once a week about things that have nothing to do with his case.

“We are very concerned now as the Americans have no good reason to hold him there and are trying to pin him to crimes he has not committed - I’m scared how long they will keep him for, the situation is getting desperate.’’ Mrs Nasser, who is seeking a lawyer to help her husband, said the visit to Camp Cropper was a “horrid experience’’.

She said: “We were searched up and down in a degrading and humiliating way.

“Then we boarded a bus with the windows blacked out and we weren’t allowed to talk to each other or even the soldiers on board.

“It was very harsh conditions.’’ Mrs Nasser said she believed his MSc degree project measuring cardiac output fell into American hands after his family’s Baghdad home was burgled two years ago when the family fled the city.

Mr Al-Sarraj’s device was stolen along with other belongings and when the Americans gained possession, they dusted it for fingerprints which then sparked the security alert when Mr Al-Sarraj returned to the country to sell pacemakers.

Member of Parliament for Carshalton and Wallington Tom Brake has said the Americans know Mr Al-Sarraj was not guilty but could not release him due to “procedure’’.

But Major Neal V Fisher II, from the Task Force 134 unit in charge of detainee control in Iraq has said Mr Al-Sarraj was “a threat to the security of Iraq”.

He said: "He was detained on September 15, 2008 under suspicion of terrorism and bomb making charges.

“His case has been reviewed by a Combined Review and Release Board and is now awaiting trial in the central courts of Iraq."

• What do you think? Let us know in the comments section below.