Vienna, July 03: Former Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri, a staunch loyalist of Saddam Hussein, is using an Austrian mobile phone and may even be hiding in Austria, press reports said today. According to the daily, the mobile phone is registered in the name of a member of the Iraqi Embassy in Vienna.
Rumours that Sabri, who has been on the run since the downfall of Saddam, may have taken refuge in Austria have been circulating here for weeks.
Interior ministry spokesman Rudolph Gollia could not confirm the report. "There is no indication that he is in Austria at this time, we have no knowledge that he is staying here," Gollia said.
But he added that reports that Sabri was using an Austrian mobile phone had meant the Austrian authorities were keeping a closer eye on rumours surrounding his whereabouts.
The Austrian authorities were "cooperating within the general framework of the fight against terrorism with the US Embassy in Vienna," he said. A US Embassy official who did not wish to be named said that rumours surrounding Sabri were purely speculation.
Sabri is a former Iraqi ambassador to Austria and has close ties with extreme right-wing Austrian politician Joerg Haider.
Haider, for his part, said he had no clue as to Sabri's whereabouts, adding that he had been in telephone contact with him several times after the outbreak of the US-led invasion of Iraq but had heard nothing since. Bureau Report