Lebanon arrests grandson of Saddam's brother over Speicher massacre

Lebanon’s General Security agency has arrested Abdullah Yasser Sabawi, a grandson of Saddam Hussein’s half-brother Sabawi Ibrahim al-Tikriti, who is accused of involvement in the 2014 Camp Speicher massacre in Iraq.

“He is accused of carrying out criminal operations that resulted in the death of thousands of innocents, based on an Interpol warrant that has been enforced by the relevant Lebanese security agencies,” General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim told Iraq’s IMN TV.

“We operate as per the international law, the judiciary and the warrants of exchanging and extraditing fugitives among nations, especially a brotherly country like Iraq,” Ibrahim added.

“We in turn reject any impunity and we support the implementation of the law without any interferences or pressures, and this is our duty towards our people in Iraq,” the major general added.

According to media reports, Sabawi, 27, had sought refuge in Lebanon in 2018 along with his family, after having lived in Yemen in the wake of the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime.

“Sabawi’s apartment in the Lebanese city of Jbeil was raided on June 13 and he was arrested on charges of collaborating with the Islamic State group, based on a request from Iraqi authorities,” the reports said.

The Camp Speicher massacre occurred on June 12, 2014, when the Islamic State group killed between 1,095 to 1,700 Iraqi cadets in an attack on Camp Speicher in Tikrit, Iraq.

At the time of the massacre, there were between 5,000 and 10,000 unarmed cadets in the camp, and IS fighters selected the Shiites and non-Muslims for execution. It is the second deadliest act of terrorism in history, only surpassed by the September 11 attacks.