Iraq's Saddam-era culture minister released

Hamed Yussef Hamadi, who was a culture minister under Saddam Hussein, has been released after over six years in prison and has left Iraq, a justice ministry spokesman and a lawyer said on Friday. Justice ministry spokesman Haidar al-Saadi said that Hamadi had been released, but provided no further details. Lawyer Badie Aref, who represented 17 Saddam-era officials, including former deputy prime minister Tareq Aziz, said that Hamadi was released from detention in Kadhimiyah prison in Baghdad on Thursday, and has left the country. Hamadi, 72, was arrested on January 24, 2006. During Saddam's rule, he served as information and culture minister, then culture minister after the two ministries were split, and also as secretary of the presidency. Deputy Justice Minister Busho Ibrahim said that Hamadi was charged in the course of several trials of former Iraqi officials, but was acquitted. Hamadi was the secretary of Saddam at the time of the massacre of 148 villagers in Dujail in 1982 after an attack on the presidential motorcade. He testified on February 14, 2006 that "I know nothing about this incident," adding he had never been privy to any of the security-related communiques directed to Saddam, something the former Iraqi president had confirmed.