Saddam's son-in-law returns from Syria to surrender

Saddam Hussein's sole surviving son-in-law has surrendered, a leading Iraqi opposition group said yesterday.

The Iraqi National Congress said that Jamal Mustafa Sultan al-Tikriti, No 40 on the US list of 55 most-wanted Iraqis, had returned from Syria to surrender to them.

US-led forces in Iraq also seized the Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, ranked 43 on their list, the US Central Command said yesterday. "Abd al-Khalq Abd al-Ghafar was taken into custody yesterday [on Saturday]," a statement said, without giving further details.

The INC's spokesman in Baghdad, Zaab Sethna, said Jamal had served as Saddam's private secretary until the end. "He is the first close member of the family to be detained," he said.He said Jamal had fled to Syria but the INC persuaded him to come back to Baghdad – along with a senior Iraqi intelligence official, Khaled Abdallah – and give himself up.

Jamal is married to Hala – the youngest of Saddam's daughters and the dearest to the former dictator. He headed the tribal affairs department within the presidential office.

Haider Ahmed, an INC spokesman in London, said seizing Jamal was more important than other captures.

Earlier yesterday, President George Bush said there were "positive signs" that Syria was heeding calls to deny sanctuary to fleeing members of the deposed Iraqi administration.

The US now has seven of the 55 most wanted men. Hikmat Mizban Ibrahim al-Azzawi, the Deputy Prime Minister and Economics and Finance Minister – the eight of diamonds on the playing cards issued by the Americans – was caught on Friday by Iraqi police in Baghdad. On Thursday, Samir al-Aziz al-Najim, the four of clubs, who was the Oil Minister, was captured by US-led forces.

Saddam's top science adviser, Lt-Gen Amer al-Saadi, the seven of diamonds, turned himself in to US forces on 12 April. Last Sunday, US forces seized Saddam's half-brother, Watban Ibrahim Hasan al-Tikriti, the five of spades. Another half-brother, Barzan Ibrahim Hassan al-Tikriti, the five of clubs, was arrested by US special forces on Thursday.

In Baghdad, Mohammed Mohsen al-Zubaidi, the deputy head of the INC, said the new government would try "anyone whose hands are stained with the blood of the Iraqi people". He also said Iraq's new constitution would be based on Islamic law. But the INC leader, Ahmed Chalabi, said yesterday that he did not envisage an Islamic theocracy in Iraq.