The only man convicted of the murder of the British aid worker Margaret Hassan escaped from a notorious Iraqi jail with the help of the governor, an official report has concluded.
Ali Lutfi Jassar al-Rawi fled, disguised in a guard’s uniform, during a riot that had been organised by Abdul Hussein al-Zobaie, the prison governor, it is alleged.
Al-Rawi was convicted of being a member of the gang that kidnapped and murdered Mrs Hassan in Baghdad in 2004. He was jailed in June 2009 but failed to attend court hearings for his appeal. The prison authorities insisted that he was in custody but announced in July last year that he had escaped during a fire in a prison van two months earlier.
However, a confidential Iraqi government inquiry has now found that al-Rawi was smuggled out of Baghdad Central Prison, formerly known as Abu Ghraib, just three months after his conviction.
The riot allegedly staged to provide cover for the escape resulted in the death of one detainee, while 40 others were injured and part of the jail was destroyed by fire.
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The prison governor, who is the brother-in-law of a former Iraqi vice-president, and the jail’s director of internal affairs are both reported to have been charged with aiding al-Rawi’s escape.
Mrs Hassan’s family believe there has been a high-level conspiracy to protect members of the Sunni militia group called the 1920 Revolution Brigade, which was responsible for her murder.
Deirdre Manchanda, the eldest of the charity worker’s three sisters, said: “Al-Rawi was helped because he is related to the leader of the powerful group which had engineered the kidnap and murder.” A spokeswoman for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said: “We are very concerned by reports that Ali Lutfi Jassar has escaped from the Iraqi prison system.
“Justice must be done for this dreadful crime committed against someone who dedicated her life to helping all Iraqis.”
William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, discussed al-Rawi’s escape with Hoshyar Zebari, the Iraqi Foreign Minister, in July and November last year.
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Mrs Hassan, 59, was dragged from her car in western Baghdad in October 2004. She was a critic of the US-led invasion and had been head of the humanitarian organisation Care International for 12 years.