BAGHDAD, Oct 11: US troops took a former Iraqi minister who holds US citizenship from a Baghdad court on Wednesday after he was sentenced to two years in jail for misusing public money.

The troops whisked Ayham al-Samarraie, a Sunni who served in the first post-war interim government of Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, from the courtroom in the central criminal court building after he expressed fears for his life, the officials said.

Mr Samarraie, a former electricity minister who had been in Iraqi custody since his arrest on charges of financial and managerial corruption in August, said earlier he was under US protection and that he was the victim of a political conspiracy by the government.

An Iraqi government spokesman said Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government had demanded Mr Samarraie's return and that the Americans had agreed to this.—Reuters