The former Iraqi information minister Mohammed Saeed Al Sahhaf was paid US$200,000 to give his first interview since the war.
Al Arabiya, a television station based in Dubai, admitted that it deposited the money in a local bank account held by Sahhaf's son.
"We were trying to get the interview for several weeks. We managed to get his agreement but only after we gave him some promises and $200,000," the Gulf News quoted Dr. Saad Al Hasani, head of Al Arabiya's Baghdad bureau, as saying.
"He was very gentle and relaxed, but when it came to the end of the interview he was very tough.
"He got all the tapes and took them outside to make a phone call to his son. He asked if the money had been paid into his bank account, and when his son said, 'Yes, it is OK', he gave us the tapes back."
© 2003 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
