Liechtenstein hands Saddam money jet to Iraq

Liechtenstein today handed over to the Iraqi government a private plane said to have been used by former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to transport money and senior officials.

It was the first return of an Iraqi aircraft seized under UN Security Council resolutions linked to the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, Liechtenstein said in a statement.

The Falcon 50 business jet was seized in Amman, Jordan, shortly before the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 in accordance with the UN sanctions committee at the request of Liechtenstein, where the plane was registered.

With the approval of the committee the plane was then taken to Basel, where it was completely overhauled.

“This is an important symbolic act for the Iraqi people,” said Baha al-Shibib, Iraqi ambassador to United Nations offices in Geneva, who accepted the plane.

The Liechtenstein government said the return “is the result of a close and protracted, but constructive, co-operation between the authorities of Liechtenstein, the United States and Iraq.”

“Worldwide it is the first case of a return of mobile property to the Iraqi government in accordance with the relevant decisions of the UN Security Council,” said the Liechtenstein government.

Juan Zarate, assistant US treasury secretary overseeing terrorist financing and financial crimes, testified before a US Senate subcommittee last year that the plane was seized as part of a joint effort with the governments of Liechtenstein, Switzerland, and Jordan to uncover a financial network that had been used by the Iraqis to move money and people in the heart of Europe.

“As a direct result of these efforts, this former symbol of the Hussein regime will be returned to the Iraqi people,” Zarate said.