Briton Charged With Spying in Iraq Released After Car Chase, Scuffle
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AMMAN, Jordan — An Englishman who was jailed in Iraq on spying charges was turned over to a British diplomat Friday, but only after the envoy was forced to chase down Iraqi officials and grab the former prisoner from them.
Douglas Brand, a 51-year-old engineer, was supposed to have been freed Thursday on the Iraq-Jordan border, but Iraqi officials balked and refused to hand him over to British Consul Michael Tobin.
Instead, they sneaked Brand out a back door of a border checkpoint and began a 250-mile, high-speed drive to Amman with Tobin in pursuit late Thursday night.
Tobin’s car eventually cut the Iraqi vehicle off before it could reach Baghdad’s embassy in Amman shortly after midnight and the consul grabbed Brand from the Iraqis.
Brand was among the foreigners taken hostage by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s forces on the eve of the Persian Gulf War.
He was sentenced in September to life in prison for alleged spying.
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