In an exclusive interview with Arab News, he said he was eagerly awaiting his return to his beloved country after the downfall of the dictatorial regime in Baghdad.

Rekabi, 60, who has been in exile for more than 30 years, accused Saddam of betraying him to the jail authorities and telling them about his political leanings.

Rekabi also spoke about Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed Al-Sahaf. “He is a mean and marginal character. He was not a popular personality even among the Baathists,” he said, adding that the general prosecutor during the period of Qasim had married Sahaf’s sister.

Rekabi, who used to own a textile factory in Iraq, described his bitter experience with the regime in Baghdad. He left Nassiriyah about 30 years ago and was living in various Arab and Gulf countries including Syria and Lebanon. He is now based in Kuwait. Foreign newspapers and television channels including CNN had tried to interview Rekabi over the past weeks but he refused to talk to them.

Rekabi said he was arrested in the Ras Al-Qarya region, which had witnessed an assassination attempt on Qasim. “Dozens of government vehicles surrounded me and then took me to the Department of Import and Export,” he said. Later several security officers started questioning him.

“I asked one of the officers why I had been arrested. He said I had financed a plot against the government. I told them that I was just a trader and had no connection with politics. But they ignored my words and put me in jail.” However, Rekabi believed that the authorities might have jailed him for holding the post of the secretary-general of the Al-Fatmi Party, which he said had no significant role in Iraqi politics.

About Saddam, Rekabi said: “He has a strong personality. He frightened everybody around him. He respected only the strong and was afraid of nothing except a few people like Ahmed Al-Azawi, and he was assassinated in Syria in 1970s.”

Rekabi recalled that there was a clash between the rightists and leftists of the Baath Party inside Al-Rasheed Jail. The rightists were represented by Saddam and his comrades. Many of them were injured in that fight. Saddam told the jail director: “We are revolutionaries. We helped you to raise your heads while Abdul Kareem Qasim was humiliating you. We’ll soon come to power.” Saddam’s party came to power in 1968.

Rekabi was later released. When Saddam was vice president of the country, the two met. “He sent a car to take me to the presidential palace. I met him along with Foreign Minister Abdul Kareem Shaikhaly. It was a warm reception, and Saddam recalled our days in prison,” he said. Saddam also agreed to the release of his cousin Harbi Mizaal upon his request.

Saddam sought the help of Rekabi to win the support of tribal leaders in Nassiriyah. “I arranged for Saddam to meet with 14 tribal leaders. During the meeting, the leaders opposed the confiscation of private farms for distribution to Baathists. Everybody who took part in the meeting was jailed. Saddam did not like their protest.” However, Rekabi was released after a month.