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Mariam Appeal was backed by Jordanian

Kim Sengupta
Friday 13 May 2005 00:00 BST
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George Galloway set up the Mariam Appeal with Fawaz Zureikat, a Jordanian businessman who often visited London. The pair were friend and Mr Zureikat made no secret of his trading links with Iraq, or that this was his main source of income.

According to the Iraqi trade ministry, Mr Zureikat was awarded contracts to ship 8.8 million barrels of Iraqi oil. He had earlier claimed he wanted to show the suffering caused to Iraq by UN sanctions.

Mariam Hamza, a four-year-old Iraqi girl, was brought to Britain to be treated for leukaemia in 1998. In the Senate report, one oil transaction was signed "Aredio Petroleum Company (Fawaz Zuraiqat - Mariam's Appeal)''.

Mr Zureikat is also said to have helped arrange Mr Galloway's well-publicised interview with Saddam Hussein. Documents found by The Daily Telegraph in the looted and burnt foreign ministry in Baghdad supposedly state that he supplied the Iraqi government with civil and military equipment. But the same papers were said to show that Mr Galloway was receiving secret payments from the regime - a claim that led to his successful action against the Telegraph.

At the time Mr Zureikat was working on a plan to bring British businessmen to Iraq. "I will," he stressed, "make sure that they get to meet the very best people, right at the top."

That particular project did not materialise.

American and British forces invaded Iraq soon afterwards and Mr Zureikat, a Jordanian, languished in prison in Amman, arrested by the country's intelligence service at the behest, it is said, of the US.

Thanks to his Christian clan's extensive contacts, he was freed after 27 days.

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