Tariq Aziz sentenced to death in Iraq

Tariq Aziz, who surrendered to US troops after the fall of Baghdad in 2003, was one of the best known faces of Saddam’s regime.

Iraq’s high tribunal today passed a death sentence on the former foreign minister, over the persecution of Islamic parties.

Aziz rose to prominence at the time of Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait and the 1991 Gulf War and was well known in foreign capitals and at the UN.

“The court today issued the death sentence on Tariq Aziz and four others for committing crimes against humanity. The charge of elimination of religious parties was classified as crimes against humanity,” Judge Mohammed Abdul-Sahib, a spokesman of the Iraqi High Tribunal, told Reuters.

The nature of the crimes is wilful killing, torture and the enforced disappearance of persons. Judge Mohammed Abdul-Sahib

“The nature of the crimes is wilful killing, torture and the enforced disappearance of persons.”

Last year, Aziz was 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 during Saddam’s rule.

Son launches campaign to save Aziz
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, writes International Editor Lindsey Hilsum. 

"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. 

Read more on the World News blog

He surrendered to US forces in 2003 but was handed over to Iraqi authorities this year. Two months ago in an interview from his cell with the Guardian newspaper, he accused US President Barack Obama of “leaving Iraq to the wolves” because of plans to withdraw.

Aziz’s Amman-based lawyer, Badie Arif, said the decision was politically motivated.

“It is a political verdict and not legal. He [Aziz] expected that, especially when the US administration handed him over to the Iraqi government,” Arif told Reuters by telephone from Amman.

The judge said Aziz, as well as four other defendants in the case who were also sentenced to death, were expected to appeal the decision. Iraqi law provides for an automatic appeal for all death-sentence and life-imprisonment cases, even if the defendants do not lodge an appeal themselves.

The four other defendants sentenced to death were former interior minister and intelligence chief, Sadoun Shakir, Abed Hamoud, a former private secretary to Saddam, Saddam’s half brother Sabawi Ibrahim al-Hasan and, a former top Baath party official, Abdul Ghani Abdul Ghafour.