by Ammar KarimSat Aug 18, 6:48 AM ET
The international police organisation Interpol on Saturday issued a wanted notice for Saddam Hussein's eldest daughter, who is sought by the Iraqi government on suspicion of terrorism.
Interpol's "Red Notice" is not an international arrest warrant but is a request for foreign police forces to cooperate in tracking down 38-year-old Raghad Hussein and in extraditing her to face justice in Iraq.
"A judicial order was issued against Raghad a year ago by the Central Criminal Court accusing her of funding terrorism," Iraqi interior ministry operations director Major General Abdel Karim Khalaf told AFP.
"Her arrest would depend on Jordanian authorities as she is staying in Amman and the order of Interpol binds on all countries who are associated with it."
Hussein has lived in Jordan since July 2003 and since last year has been on a list of 41 people associated with her father's regime that the new Iraqi government is seeking to prosecute for allegedly inciting violence.
Her whereabouts at the time the notice was issued was not immediately clear.
Known to some as "Little Saddam" for her aggressive temperament, Raghad has taken a more public role in defending her father, who was executed on December 30 last year, than her sister Rana or her mother Sajida.
Sajida, Saddam's wife, is also subject to an Iraqi arrest warrant.
The wanted notice posted on Interpol's website and marked August 18, 2007 said an Iraqi arrest warrant had been issued under which Raghad is accused of inciting "crimes against life and health" and of "terrorism".
It gave her full name with the spelling Raghad Saddam Husayn al-Majid and said she was believed to have both Iraqi and Jordanian nationality. Interpol told AFP that she had been the subject of a Red Notice since late 2006.
The agency urged anyone with knowledge of her whereabouts to contact their local police or Interpol's headquarters in Lyon, France.
In the Jordanian capital Amman, Issam al-Ghazzawi, a lawyer and member of Saddam's former defence team, told AFP: "Raghad is a guest of his majesty the king. Iraq asked Jordan to extradite her last year, but the kingdom refused."
"Nobody can force Jordan to extradite Raghad. I think Interpol's arrest warrant is not binding, but I am not sure," he added.
In July last year, after Iraq issued its warrant, Jordanian Prime Minister Maaruf Bakhit said Raghdad Hussein and her family were indeed living under the protection of King Abdullah II.
"The presence of Mrs Raghad Saddam Hussein and her children in Jordan is motivated by humanitarian considerations," he told the official Petra news agency. "She is the guest of the Hashemite royal family."
Former dictator Saddam was driven from power by a US-led invasion in March 2003 and went on the run. He was captured in December 2003.
In July of the same year, shortly after US troops hunting her father killed her brothers Uday and Qusay, Raghad and her sister Rana had left their homes in Syria to seek refuge in Jordan.
Their mother and a third daughter Hala opted for Qatar.
Although known for being haughty and strong-willed, Raghad -- a five foot seven inch bottle blonde socialite with a taste for stylish clothing -- was an unlikely defender of her father's legacy.
Raghad and Rana's relations with their father and brothers had broken down after their husbands, General Hussein Kamel Hassan and his brother Saddam Kamel, were killed in Iraq in 1996 after five years in exile in Jordan.
Both women accused the men in the family of having been responsible.
But once their brothers were dead and their father in US custody, both women became more vocal in their support of his cause, helping hire a defence team.
Raghad was warned by Jordanian authorities not to abuse the terms of her asylum by making political statements, but her supporters accuse Baghdad's new US-backed government of persecuting her more for vengeance than justice.