US authorities in Iraq released 25 Saddam Hussein's former top officials from prisons and prepared to transfer them to the neighboring Jordan, an Iraqi lawyer defending one of Saddam's former top aides told Xinhua on Monday.

"There is a total of 25 top officials of the ousted Saddam Hussein's regime released, including members on the US list of the top 55 most wanted Iraqis," Aref Badie, lawyer of Saddam's deputy prime minister Tareq Aziz, said.

Badie said among those released were Dr. Humam Abdul Khaliq, the former higher education minister, Lieu. Gen. Hussam Muhammed Amin, head of the former national monitoring directorate and Rihab Taha, wife of Saddam's veteran oil minister Amir Rashid and a bioweapons scientist widely known as "Dr Germ".

Badie refused to reveal all the names of the freed Saddam officials for security reasons, but said there would be more senior officials to be freed soon.

Another well-known female bioweapons scientist, Huda Salih Mehdi Ammash, known by the US intelligence as "Mr. Anthrax" was also freed, according to a government source who refused to be named.

(Xinhua News Agency December 20, 2005)