Saddam Hussein

Baghdad, Aug. 5: Saddam Hussein ordered Iraq’s central bank to withdraw $1 billion for his youngest son the day before the invasion to stop it falling into foreign hands, according to a leaked letter apparently written by the former dictator.

In a hand-written note to the bank’s governor, marked “top secret” and dated March 19, 2003, the former President told Isam Huwaish to give $920 million and 90 million euros to his son Qusay and another man, al-Mashriq newspaper said yesterday. The Iraqi national broadsheet reproduced the letter, which appears to bear Saddam’s signature.

Employees of the bank and finance ministry officials reported the licensed raid on the bank in May 2003 but written evidence has not emerged until now.

Saddam justified the withdrawal “to protect this money from American aggression” and ended the short note ordering that “necessary measures should be taken”. Qusay and Hikmat Ibrahim, a senior aide to the President, delivered the instruction in person to Huwaish.

The huge amount of cash, said to be in $100 bills, was loaded in metal boxes on to three lorries during a five-hour operation, said bank officials interviewed after the fall of Baghdad.

The reproduced letter was passed to the newspaper by Badee Arif, a lawyer who is representing Huwaish on corruption charges.

“This document makes clear that my client is innocent of the crime he is accused of: wasting the country’s finances," he said.

Al-Mashriq’s deputy editor told The Daily Telegraph he believed that the document was genuine. The whereabouts of the money is still debated in Iraq. Many people believe that much of it is with Saddam’s family, which is now living in exile.

American officers suspect that much of the money was moved to Syria, where Saddam’s relatives are said to have fled before the invasion.

Two of his daughters, Raghad and Rana, are now said to be living in a villa in the Jordanian capital, Amman.