One of Saddam Hussein’s alleged former weapons chiefs has been recruited as a scientist at one of Britain’s most important research facilities. Dr Saleh Al-Atabi, 57, was a commander in the Iraqi dictator’s Ba’ath party and a “supervisor” at a weapons-making facility, according to High Court papers.
Al-Atabi fled to Britain in 2006 with his wife and two children, seeking asylum and claiming he would be killed if sent to Iraq due to his Ba’ath party involvement. Although his initial asylum bid was rejected, he was given indefinite leave to remain in 2013 and was later employed as a scientist at Imperial College London.
The physicist, who now works at the Diamond Light Source in Didcot, Oxfordshire, has a complicated past. He was employed by the Iraqi regime’s Military Industrialisation Committee, which made chemical weapons before the regime fell, according to a UN report.
Al-Atabi had his bid for British citizenship opposed by two successive Home Secretaries, Amber Rudd and Priti Patel, due to his “association with… organisations that regularly committed international crimes.” Although he remains in the UK, he still has indefinite leave to remain and has been living in a £400,000 flat in Maida Vale, west London.
Despite his checkered past, Diamond Light Source confirmed Al-Atabi’s role as a “beamline scientist” and stated that they had completed all required pre-employment and sanction checks, clearing him to work in the UK.