[4] In 2004, he spoke to Al Jazeera about medicine that had been looted from the Ministry of Health, and about quality control weaknesses under the previous Hussein administration.
[5] His son, writing in Foreign Policy in 2010, reported that al-Saffa was on the brink of exposing evidence of Hussein and fellow deputy minister Hakim al-Zamili diverting funds for health towards armed militias.
[1] In February 2007, Hakim al-Zamili, and General Hamid al-Shammari, were both arrested on suspicion they had played a role in al-Saffa's and other kidnappings.
[7] Saffar's son Ali said a tape was sent to his family showing a hooded figure, ostensibly al-Saffa, being shot, but no body has ever been recovered.
[8] Al-Saffar spent 16 years living in exile in the United Kingdom until he returned to his home country following the 2003 invasion of Iraq.