Saddam fine, says Iraqi minister
Deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein is in fine health, though he refuses to have a biopsy to verify that he is cancer free, Iraqi Human Rights Minister Bakhtiar Amin said.
Saddam has been held under US detention at an undisclosed location in Iraq since his capture last December.
Amin spoke amid a spate of media reports saying Saddam’s health was deteriorating.
Saddam suffers from a chronic prostate infection, but X-rays and blood tests did not show that he suffered from anything more severe than that, Amin said in an interview on Arab television station Al-Jazeera.
Saddam, however, refused to have a biopsy to prove he does not have cancer, he said.
A Jordan-based spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross, the only neutral entity with access to Saddam, said today the organisation had no information about a downturn in Saddam’s health.
“Saddam’s sickness was rumours spread by the media,” Mu’in Kassis said. The ICRC said it has visited him at least twice to check on his condition and carry messages to his family.
According to Amin, Saddam has lost weight after following a diet. He spends his time reading the Quran, writing poetry and tending to a garden, Amin said.
Mohammed al-Rashdan, a member of Saddam’s defence team, said the lawyers have received unconfirmed information that Saddam suffered a stroke.
He urged the Iraqi government to allow them, his family or a neutral party to send a doctor to Iraq to examine Saddam.
