Ammar al-Saffar (born 1956) was the Deputy Health Minister of Iraq from 2003 until his kidnapping and likely death in 2006. On November 19, 2006, he became the highest-ranking Iraqi official to be kidnapped when he was seized by men in police uniforms.

Career

Since 2003, al-Saffa, a

Shiite Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that the Islamic prophet Muhammad designated ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his successor (''khalīfa'') and the Imam (spiritual and political leader) after him, most ...

and member of the

Islamic Dawa Party The Islamic Dawa Party, also known as the Islamic Call Party ( ar, حزب الدعوة الإسلامية, Ḥizb ad-Daʿwa al-Islāmiyya), is an Shia Islamist political party in Iraq. Dawa and the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council are two of th ...

worked as the Deputy Health Minister of Iraq, serving under Prime Minister

Nouri al-Maliki Nouri Kamil Muhammad-Hasan al-Maliki ( ar, نوري المالكي; born 20 June 1950), also known as Jawad al-Maliki (), is secretary-general of the Islamic Dawa Party and was the prime minister of Iraq from 2006 to 2014 and the vice president ...

and was noted for his open criticism of former President

Saddam Hussein Saddam Hussein ( ; ar, صدام حسين, Ṣaddām Ḥusayn; 28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. A leading member of the revolution ...

. In 2004, he spoke to

Al Jazeera Al Jazeera ( ar, الجزيرة, translit-std=DIN, translit=al-jazīrah, , "The Island") is a state-owned Arabic-language international radio and TV broadcaster of Qatar. It is based in Doha and operated by the media conglomerate Al Jazeera ...

about medicine that had been looted from the Ministry of Health, and about quality control weaknesses under the previous Hussein administration. His son, writing in ''

Foreign Policy A State (polity), state's foreign policy or external policy (as opposed to internal or domestic policy) is its objectives and activities in relation to its interactions with other states, unions, and other political entities, whether bilaterall ...

'' in 2010, reported that al-Saffa was on the brink of exposing evidence of Hussein and fellow deputy minister Hakim al-Zamili diverting funds for health towards armed militias.

Assassination attempts and abduction

There was an attempts on al-Saffa's life in June 2004. On November 19th, 2006, al-Saffa was abducted from his Baghdad home, at gun point, by men in Iraqi army uniforms. He was aged 50 at the time of the abduction. In February 2007, Hakim al-Zamili, and General Hamid al-Shammari, were both arrested on suspicion they had played a role in al-Saffa's and other kidnappings. However, the charges were dropped in March 2008. , Saffar remains missing. Saffar's son Ali said a tape was sent to his family showing a hooded figure, ostensibly al-Saffa, being shot, but no body has ever been recovered. Al-Saffar was later declared legally dead in the United Kingdom, where his wife lives.

Personal life

Al-Saffar spent 16 years living in exile in the United Kingdom until he returned to his home country following the

2003 invasion of Iraq The 2003 invasion of Iraq was a United States-led invasion of the Republic of Iraq and the first stage of the Iraq War. The invasion phase began on 19 March 2003 (air) and 20 March 2003 (ground) and lasted just over one month, including 26 ...

. His son, Ali, lives in London, England.

Post death

By 2013, al-Saffa's family considered him deceased and reported feeling no closure.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saffar, Ammar 2000s missing person cases 21st-century missing person cases Iraqi people taken hostage Iraqi Shia Muslims Islamic Dawa Party politicians Kidnapped businesspeople Missing people Missing person cases in Iraq

Career

Assassination attempts and abduction

Personal life

Post death

See also

References