Agence France Presse  --  Arab News

WASHINGTON, 24 June 2004 — Deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein told his family that his morale was high, in a letter to one of his daughters reported by US media yesterday.

“My spirit and my morale, they are high, thanks to greatness of God,” Saddam wrote after being captured by US authorities in December. “And say hello to everyone,” he added.

Two-thirds of the letter — sent to Saddam’s daughter through the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) — were blacked out, Newsweek reported.

Saddam’s lawyer Muhammed Al-Rushadan told Newsweek the deposed Iraqi leader was being mistreated and that Saddam had “fresh wounds on his body,” referring to an ICRC document he claimed to have.

On Tuesday, an ICRC spokeswoman in Amman, Nada Doumani, denied that such a report exists.

“There is a capture card which carries a Red Cross logo which we distribute to the authorities all over the world. They in turn give it to the detainee who is supposed to fill it up,” Doumani said.

According to Doumani, this card mentions that Saddam “was injured”.

“But we don’t know if these injuries date from the time of his arrest (December 2003) or from Jan. 21. In any case our first visit to Saddam Hussein took place on Feb. 21,” she said.

Check marks on Saddam’s “capture card” was shown in part by Newsweek and ABC television on Wednesday indicate that he was in “good health” but “slightly wounded.”

According to the reports, nine of the 14 lines of Saddam’s message were blacked out by US authorities. “Two-thirds of it are blacked out, and there are only 17 words you can read,” Rushadan said of the letter.