Mithal Al-Alusi - Life in Exile

Life in Exile

In 1976, he was sentenced to death in absentia while studying in Cairo, for trying to undermine then-President of Iraq, Saddam Hussein. Alusi was then a member of the Ba'ath Party, but had been aligned with opponents of Saddam within the party such as Abdel-Khaliq Al-Samara'i, who was himself killed by the security services. Alusi went into exile in Germany and worked as a businessman. In December 2002, he was involved in the takeover of the Iraqi embassy in Berlin to protest Saddam's tyranny, and was convicted of hostage taking by a German court and sentenced to three years in jail. His sentence was later reduced to house arrest. He returned to Iraq in October 2003 and joined the Iraqi National Congress.

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