Posted on 04/25/2003 9:26:02 AM PDT by Pokey78
FOR 12 years the wife of MP George Galloway has refused to talk publicly about her husband.
But yesterday Dr Amineh Abu-Zayyad told the Daily Mirror: "He has done nothing wrong. He is a hero to me."
As the media besieged their home, following the "cash for oil" allegations, the renowned biologist - a close relative of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat - went on: "I have always admired him and I continue to do so. I am fully behind him. I have always believed in him 100 per cent."
Speaking publicly for the first time since they were linked, 41-year-old Amineh refuted allegations that George, 48, received illegal payments from Saddam Hussein's Iraqi regime.
She said: "Any idiot can see this is a disgraceful smear campaign and we will fight it. My husband is an honourable man, which is why I married him."
Amineh is in constant contact with "the love of my life", who was in their villa in Portugal - working on a book about Iraq - when the allegations broke over Easter.
Since then they have found themselves under attack - he in the Algarve and she at home in Streatham, South London.
But if George was worried about how his Palestinian-born wife would cope with the glare of adverse publicity, he can rest assured she is up to the task.
Amineh, who has done considerable work in cancer research, said: "I believe in him and nobody on this earth can make me think otherwise.
"I keep telling him he must hold his head up high. He knows his family and friends are behind him.
"We believe in justice and his innocence will be proved." Amineh was angry at suggestions by the Daily Telegraph that the Glasgow MP received backhanders of £375,000 a year from Iraq as his share of secret oil deals.
"There is a dirty campaign to discredit him," she said. "He is passionate about certain causes, whether they be anti-war, Arab or Muslim and there are people who don't like that.
"But this will be dealt with by the courts and his name will be cleared."
She said support for the MP has come from all over the world. "I have had calls and emails from so many countries and people are shocked at the way my husband has been smeared.
"I have some very good friends from my Glasgow University days who stayed with me over Easter and have been very supportive of me and George. I haven't felt alone at all."
Fiery Amineh, born in Jerusalem and a graduate of Glasgow and Jerusalem Universities, is used to controversy.
WHEN she became engaged to George, her relative Arafat invited the couple to marry in Jericho.
Her family gave the planned wedding their blessing after George visited them in Jerusalem eight years ago to ask for Amineh's hand.
George gave his fiancee a three diamond engagement ring and told friends she was "incredibly pretty with a lot of brains".
But the couple married modestly at Lambeth register office, South London, in March 2000 after a five-year courtship.
Only a handful of their inner circle witnessed it. Asked why the couple did not pose for pictures, George said: "I didn't want photographers there. Quite simply, I made a decision that I would not discuss my private life again."
Amineh has also lived by that mantra and, until yesterday, had refused to discuss her husband.
The daughter of a Palestinian businessman, she completely captivated George when they met in 1991 - but both stress they were friends long before the relationship blossomed into romance.
Both were passionate about the plight of the Palestinians. George had been speaking on the subject at a meeting in Partick, Lanarkshire. Impressed, Amineh felt compelled to find out more about him.
One cause which drew them together was the Mariam Appeal, launched in 1998 for eight-year-old Iraqi Mariam Hamza.
She was suffering from leukaemia and George blamed uranium-tipped weapons used by the Allies in the 1991 Gulf War. The fund was used to fly her to Glasgow for treatment but she went blind.
It was a cause Amineh and George battled for, but it was criticised for becoming too political and not seeking full charitable status.
Until now, little has been known of Amineh's background. But a long- term acquaintance said: "George is immensely proud of his wife.
"We don't know why he has kept her under wraps this long, though.
"It could be that he is anxious that her Middle Eastern roots could cause her problems in the light of death threats he has received because of his devotion to that part of the world."
Amineh's family have suffered for their beliefs - her brothers were jailed and her uncle killed as they campaigned to reclaim the Occupied Territories from Israeli control.
Close relative Ziad Abu-Zayyad was a Cabinet minister under Arafat and his brother Khalil served 17 years in prison for fighting for the Palestinian cause.
GEORGE - once dubbed the Member for Baghdad Central because of his close links with Iraq - found a soulmate in Amineh.
A close friend said: "She understands him completely and although she believes just as fervently in all his causes, she has the ability to calm him too. And she can match him word for word intellectually."
George said: "The night I saw her changed my life. I saw this beautiful young woman in the audience and made sure I was introduced to her."
His marriage to wife Elaine had hit the rocks, following his affair with a civil servant. The couple, who have a daughter Lucy, 20, separated in 1987 but did not divorce for 12 years.
The flamboyant MP, also nicknamed Gorgeous George, said that when he met Amineh "I was pretty miserable and in a turbulent relationship which was going badly.
"But as soon as I met Amineh I knew things were different. We started to see each other and fell head over heels."
She was equally smitten with the charming, knowledgeable MP who felt so strongly about her people.
Amineh said: "From the day I met him, he was the most gentle and honest man I have ever known.
"Once we got serious there were enough people willing to tell me about his past and other women.
"I didn't care about that. I see the side that nobody else sees. I sometimes see him worried and tired but I also see how committed he is to his work."
Money and sex, the gangster's most potent weapons. And, if you've got one, you can easily turn it into the other.
I'll bet. She knew a willing traitor when she saw one. Or she was sent by someone who knew him for what he was.
Plus, she can suck an orange through a straw, I don't doubt.
Also, the relationship to Arafat - frankly, why wasn't this common knowledge in the British press before? But then, maybe that's an American expectation of disclosure.
Excerpt from a previous Mirror article: George Galloway: In from the Cold
He split from first wife Elaine Fyffe in 1987 when he admitted having "carnal knowledge" of a woman at a conference for War on Want.His current wife is Amineh Abu-Zayadd, 35, a scientist from Jerusalem. He says he wants her to have his baby.
The biologist who works at Glasgow University, married Mr Galloway in a secret ceremony in London in February 2000.
[snip] He lists his hobbies as football, films and Cuban cigars.
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