A PERTH business man is set to take his life in his hands at the end of the month when he makes an emotional return to his Iraqi homeland for the first time in 24 years.

Adil Hamdani, a former personal pilot of recently-deposed dictator Saddam Hussein, will travel to the Baghdad home which he fled in 1980 with the threat of death hanging over him.

Adil was the cousin of Adnan Hamdani, the president of Iraq immediately before Saddam, who was assassinated in an opening purge of political enemies.

Fearing he could be next, Adil even left his clothes hanging in their wardrobes as he abandoned his old life to follow his wife to Scotland.

He settled in Perth, which he had first visited to receive specialist flight training in the late 1960s, and where he now owns the Tulloch Works business Hamdani and Son.

Now, he is prepared to risk his life to travel back to the Middle East where he will be re-united with his sister, the only one of his five siblings left alive, and meet around 40 other relatives for the first time.

He said, “It has been very hard.

“I never wrote to them because I wasn’t allowed to and had to stay in contact with the odd phone call from my brother who was a merchant and allowed out of Iraq occasionally.

“But now I have been able to Email since Saddam has been gone and that is how we have arranged this trip.”

There was no way Adil could have returned to Iraq under Saddam’s rule after he tricked his way out of the country.

He explained, “After my cousin was killed I was made to work at a bus station and then moved about to disgrace me.

“My wife is Scottish and I had a three-year-old son, Omar, and I told them to leave and I would follow them—I gave them all my money and let them go.

“Three months later, she sent me a message—as arranged—to say she was seriously ill and I told the ministry of transport I needed to visit her.

“They made me leave £5000 to guarantee my return so when I left the country I lost my money and left everything and I could never let anyone know where I was.

“I don’t think anyone will be after me. If Saddam was still there I couldn’t go back but he is finished and thank goodness for that.

“About three years ago, they cleared the names of everyone who was missing but I was told there was still a question mark over mine. I am prepared to take the risk now to go back.

“I’m getting older and there are about 40 people from my sister’s family I have never even met.

“I’m anxious but am looking forward to it. I don’t really know what to feel or whether it will be good or bad at the moment.”

Adil will also visit the home he still owns in Baghdad, about a mile from Saddam’s palace. He said, “My brother, who died of a heart attack about a year ago, was my next-door neighbour and he has kept an eye on it.

“I’m told when the bombing was going on, the windows all smashed and some of the walls cracked so I don’t know what state it’s in now.

A keen supporter of the coalition’s actions last year, Adil feels his countrymen’s lot can only now get better.

“What is happening now with these suicide bombers is sad but they tell me it is 1000 times better than it used to be. They are quite happy and much better off than ever before.”