http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7937034.stm
Page last updated at 15:19 GMT, Wednesday, 11 March 2009
Tariq Aziz guilty of Iraq murders
It is the first conviction against the former foreign minister and
deputy PM
Tariq Aziz, for many years the public face of Saddam Hussein's Iraqi
regime, has been jailed for 15 years for his role in the execution of 42
merchants.
Aziz had denied any role in the summary trials of the men accused in 1992
of profiteering during economic sanctions.
Two of Saddam Hussein's half-brothers were also found guilty and
sentenced to death by a court in Baghdad.
Another top official, Ali Hassan al-Majid - commonly known as Chemical
Ali - was jailed for 15 years.
Two other Iraqi officials were jailed for six and 15 years, while a
former governor of the Iraqi central bank was acquitted.
Although Aziz was a world-renowned politician in his time, the BBC's Mike
Sergeant in Baghdad says this trial is not viewed by Iraqis as a big political
event
'Poor health'
TARIQ AZIZ
Born in 1936, near Mosul, northern Iraq
Studied English literature and became a journalist
The most senior Christian in the toppled regime
Enlisted US support for war on Iran
Met US President Ronald Reagan at the White House in 1984
In US custody since April 2003
Public face of Saddam regime
Profile: Tariq Aziz
This is Tariq Aziz's first conviction in the controversial Iraqi High
Tribunal process, which has been criticised by human rights groups on a number
of counts.
He could also have received a death penalty. Last week he was acquitted
in a separate trial over the killings of Shia Muslim protesters in 1999.
Aziz, a Christian, was Iraq's foreign minister during the invasion of
Kuwait in 1990, later becoming the deputy prime minister.
He had argued that his work was political and he bore no responsibility
for the deaths of the flour merchants.
Aziz surrendered to US troops on 24 April 2003, shortly after the
overthrow of Saddam Hussein and has been in custody ever since.
In recent years, he has reportedly suffered from poor health in prison
awaiting trial.
His Amman-based lawyer Badea Aref told AFP news agency that he had
expected his client would be acquitted for a second time as he had not been in
Iraq at the time of the killings.
Mr Aref said he would appeal within the statutory 30-day period, and
added that Aziz is awaiting verdicts in two further trials.
'Flawed' process
Sabawi Ibrahim said he would be proud to die a martyr
On Wednesday, two of Saddam Hussein's half-brothers - former presidential
adviser Watban Ibrahim and former intelligence chief Sabawi Ibrahim - were
sentenced to death by hanging.
As his death sentence was read out, reports say Sabaawi Ibrahim stood up
and proclaimed "God is great" and that he was proud to be a martyr. The judge
told him to sit down.
Co-defendant Majid was jailed for 15 years. Majid had faced his fourth
capital conviction in the merchants' case, having already been sentenced in the
Anfal campaign against the Kurds in the late 1980s, the crushing of a Shia
uprising in 1991 and the 1999 killings.
Saddam Hussein himself was hanged in December 2006 in a separate case.
Human Rights Watch issued a report into the trial of Saddam Hussein,
concluding that the process was flawed and its verdict unsound because of
"serious administrative, procedural and substantive legal defects".
<<_45557212_007006239-1.jpg>>
<<o.gif>>
<<inline_dashed_line.gif>>
<<_45557316_007006235-1.jpg>>
