Saddam Hussein’s alleged former weapons chief has been recruited as a scientist at one of Britain’s most important research facilities.
Physicist Dr. Saleh Al-Atabi was a commander in the Iraqi dictator’s Baath party and a “supervisor” at a weapons manufacturing facility, according to High Court documents.
The party was described in a report by the UN Human Rights Commission and the UN General Assembly as a “pervasive order of repression and oppression… sustained by widespread discrimination and… terror.”
Iraq’s Military Industrialization Committee, where Dr. Al-Atabi worked for 11 years, was manufacturing chemical weapons before the fall of the regime.
The scientist, who fled to Britain in 2006, now works for Diamond Light Source, based in Didcot, Oxfordshire. It is funded by the Government and the Wellcome Trust and carries out experiments using intense rays of light.
The 57-year-old joined the institute in May as a “beamline scientist,” according to his social media. Previously, he was a scientist at Imperial College London.
Dr. Al-Atabi fled here with his wife and two children three years after the 2003 US invasion that toppled Saddam.
He sought asylum, claiming he would be killed if sent to Iraq, due to his involvement in the Baath party. The application was rejected by the Home Office, but he was granted indefinite leave to remain in 2013 following an appeal. His attempt to obtain British citizenship was opposed by two Conservative home ministers.
Physicist Dr. Saleh Al-Atabi was a commander in the Iraqi dictator’s Baath party and a “supervisor” at a weapons manufacturing facility, according to High Court documents.
Dr. Al-Atabi fled here with his wife and two children three years after the 2003 US invasion that toppled Saddam.
He was denied citizenship by Amber Rudd in 2017 due to his “association with… organizations that regularly committed international crimes.”
In 2020, Priti Patel also rejected an appeal but is still on indefinite leave to remain.
Dr Al-Atabi, who recently lived in a £400,000 flat in Maida Vale, west London, sought a judicial review of the decision at the High Court.
A report submitted to the court by Dr Alison Pargeter, a security analyst at the University of Cambridge, said: “As a committed Baathist, Dr Al-Atabi would undoubtedly have been aware of the actions and serious human rights abuses carried out by Saddam Hussain’s regime. .’
In his 2006 asylum application, the Iraqi said he was involved in the manufacture of “bullets, explosives, small arms, AK-47s.” But as he fought the decision to deny him British citizenship, he said he was not involved at all but had worked in a plastics factory.
In November 2021, the High Court dismissed Dr Al-Atabi’s application to seek a judicial review of the Interior Ministry’s decision.
A spokesperson for Diamond Light Source confirmed his role, adding: “Diamond has completed all necessary pre-employment and sanction checks and Dr Al-Atabi has been cleared for the right to work in the UK.”
Dr. Al-Atabi was not available for comment.