JUNE 2008

IRAQ today
Tariq Aziz faces
trial in Iraq
Tariq Aziz, Iraq's
former deputy prime
minister, appears in a
courtroom at Camp
Victory, a former
Saddam palace on
the outskirts of
Baghdad, Thursday,
July 1, 2004.
An Iraqi court on April 29 began
hearing the capital case against
Tariq Aziz, one of Saddam
Hussein’s best-known lieutenants, and
seven other defendants facing charges
in the 1992 execution of dozens of
merchants for profiteering.
Aziz, 72, is Chaldean and was the
only Christian member of Saddam’s
inner circle.
The court adjourned the
opening session after half an
hour because a co-defendant,
Saddam’s cousin
known as “Chemical Ali,’’
was too ill to attend.
Aziz and the other defendants
present, including
Saddam’s half brother
Watban Ibrahim al-Hassan,
sat in a wooden pen, each
standing as the judge read
their names and discussed
legal issues.
The presiding judge, Raouf
Abdul-Rahman, said doctors
had signed a medical report
saying that Ali Hassan al-Majid
— who gained the nickname Chemical
Ali for ordering chemical attacks against
the Kurds in the late 1980s — was in critical
condition and needed some three
weeks to recover.
Aziz has denied the accusations.
“I have spoken to Mr. Aziz on this
matter two weeks ago and I recorded
our conversation. Mr. Aziz is not guilty
of any offense whatsoever,’’ said Italian
attorney Giovanni Di Stefano, who was
also one of several non-Arab attorneys
who consulted for the core team
defending Hussein.
The trial deals with the execution of
42 merchants accused by Saddam’s
government of being behind a sharp
increase in food prices when the country
was under strict U.N. sanctions.
The merchants were rounded up
over two days in July 1992 from
Baghdad’s wholesale markets and
charged with manipulating food supplies
to drive up prices at a time when
many Iraqis were suffering economically.
All 42 were executed hours later
after a quick trial.
Another judge with the Iraqi High
Tribunal, which is prosecuting offenses
of the former regime, said the charges
against the defendants would include
war crimes, crimes against humanity and
genocide. If convicted, the men could
face a sentence of death by hanging.
The judge — who declined to be
identified because he wasn’t authorized
to discuss the information — said
Aziz was being prosecuted because he
signed the execution orders against
the merchants as a member of
Saddam’s Revolutionary Command
Council, a rubberstamp group that
approved the dictator’s decisions.
Another defense attorney, Badee
Izzat Aref, has said Aziz is ailing and
still suffers from the effects of a stroke
Aziz is being prosecuted
because he signed the
execution orders against
the merchants as a member
of Saddam’s Revolutionary
Command Council, a
rubberstamp group that
approved the dictator’s
decisions.
he had prior to the U.S.-led invasion in
2003. Aziz surrendered to American
forces on April 25, 2003.
Aziz was born in Telkaif and studied
English literature at Baghdad
University. Known for his faultless
English, he was No. 43 on the U.S.
most-wanted list of Iraqi officials.
— Associated Press
PHOTO BY KAREN BALLARD/POOL/AP
Death sentence in Archbishop’s killing
The Iraqi government says an al-
Qaida in Iraq leader has been
sentenced to death for the slaying
of Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho,
who was kidnapped in February and his
body found days later.
Government spokesman Ali al-
Dabbagh says the Iraqi Central
Criminal Court handed down the sentence
May 18 against Ahmed Ali
Ahmed, an al-Qaida leader also known
as Abu Omar, for the Bishop’s killing.
Archbishop Rahho was snatched in
February in the northern city of Mosul
by gunmen who attacked his car as he
left a Mass. His body was found later in
a shallow grave.
Al-Dabbagh does not specify when
Ahmed was arrested, but he says he
was wanted in other terror attacks.
— Associated Press
JUNE 2008 CHALDEAN NEWS 27