Tariq Aziz, for two decades the public face of Saddam Hussein’s regime, was condemned to death for “persecution of the religious parties”, notably the Dawa, the Shi’ite Muslim party which now governs Iraq.
Tariq Aziz’s son, Ziad, has launched a media campaign to try to save his father from the death penalty, but has little hope that it will work.
“Deep inside I don’t think we’ll get any positive result,” he told Channel 4 News, on the phone from Jordan where he lives in exile.
“It’s politics not justice. Prime Minister Maliki wants to kill all the ex-Iraqi leaders.”
Those condemned to death in Iraq get an automatic appeal, but Mr Aziz’s son says the same judge will review the case.
Tariq Aziz, for two decades the public face of Saddam Hussein’s regime, was condemned to death for “persecution of the religious parties”, notably the Dawa, the Shi’ite Muslim party which now governs Iraq.
He gave himself up to the Americans in 2003, but a year ago the US handed him over to Iraqi custody. He has already been sentenced to 15 years in prison for his part in the killings of dozens of merchants in 1992 and to a further seven years for his role in the forced displacement of Kurds from northern Iraq.
Ziad Aziz says his father dealt only with foreign affairs and the media, and didn’t have anything to do with the torture and murders carried out by the interior ministry under Saddam’s orders.
“He was a member of Saddam Hussein’s regime, but he was not involved in interior things,” he said.
Mr Aziz suffered a stroke in January.
“He’s not in good health. He cannot walk and move, he cannot talk,” said his son, who says Mr Aziz’s wife, who lives in Yemen, and one of his daughters will visit him in prison on Friday.
Tariq Aziz came to prominence in the late 1980s, as part of the negotiating team which brought an end to the Iraq/Iran war. He travelled the world after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, and used his diplomatic contacts to try and dissuade the Americans from invading in 2003. He said that Iraq had destroyed all its weapons of mass destruction – US and British politicians did not believe him, but in the end he was proved right.
He never acknowledged the brutality of the regime he represented, instead lending a veneer of respectability by his courtly manners and fluent English. He is a Christian, a minority in Iraq.