January 21, 2007
Tariq Aziz, the former deputy prime minister of
Iraq, has thrown himself on the mercy of the Pope in
an attempt to secure his release from US custody.
Aziz faces a possible death penalty after being
charged on Friday with ordering the deaths of tens
of thousands of Shia Muslims who rebelled in 1991.
Last week he sent a handwritten plea to the Vatican,
asking Pope Benedict XVI to act as a guarantor for
him to be released on bail. The 70-year-old, a
Catholic who has been in custody since his arrest by
American forces in April 2003, asked that he be
allowed to live in Italy while awaiting trial.
Jaafar al-Moussawi, an Iraqi prosecutor, said Aziz
was among 102 officials of Saddam Hussein's regime
who were responsible for the Iraqi army crushing an
uprising by Shia and Kurdish rebels.
In a letter dated January 12 this year, and
addressed from Camp Cropper at Baghdad airport, Aziz
wrote: "I, Tariq Aziz, herein send my compliments
and greetings to his Holiness Pope Benedict and
request of the Holy See and His Holiness all the
assistance in my application for provisional release
and if his Holiness thinks appropriate to act as
guarantor for me… that I can live in peace in Italy
until such time as any trial is held by the Iraqi
authorities."
The letter was written by his Italian lawyer,
Giovanni di Stefano, and signed by Aziz. The lawyer
delivered the letter to Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone,
the Vatican's Secretary of State, and Monsignor
Gabriele Giordano Caccia, a senior official in the
Roman Curia. Mr di Stefano said that the Vatican was
considering the request.
Unlike the rest of Saddam's cabinet, Aziz is a
Chaldean Catholic, from a Babylonian branch of the
Church which maintains full ties with Rome. He was
received in a private audience by Pope John Paul II
on the eve of the Iraq war in February 2003. |
Tariq Aziz, the former deputy prime minister of Iraq
Tariq Aziz with Pope John Paul II at the Vatican in
2003 |
|
Mr di Stefano said: "They said they understood it is
a humanitarian issue and that the Holy Father will
give consideration to the request."
As Saddam Hussein's foreign spokesman for more than
a decade, Aziz was the best-known face of the Iraqi
regime abroad. He watched the execution of Saddam on
television, in the prison complex where they had
both been held. Afterwards he said that he was
deeply saddened by the death of the dictator.
"After the death of Saddam Hussein, nothing in life
is a joy," he told The Sunday Telegraph through his
lawyer.
"Saddam was a friend, a colleague, a boss and I
loved him as a person. It was not just a job for me.
I loved Saddam and his imagination and view of Iraq.
The day he was killed, Iraq died with him."
From his cell at Camp Cropper Aziz said that,
despite the possibility of a trial, he was not
concerned about the threat of execution. "I am not
worried about my life," he said.
He said Saddam's execution was the only time he had
been given access to news during his incarceration,
other than when the Iraqi parliament was elected.
Aziz, dressed in a polo shirt, a grey and green
tracksuit and a woollen hat, has been allowed to
smoke his trademark cigars while in jail. Mr di
Stefano said he had delivered a box of Romeo &
Juliet Cuban cigars during the visit.
The lawyer, who has flown to Baghdad this weekend
and is due to meet Aziz again today, disclosed a
charge sheet obtained from the US army and signed by
Judge Moneer Hadad, one of the justices present at
Saddam's death.
The sheet states that Aziz was part of the
Revolutionary Commanding Council which issued a
resolution in 1980 "taking the nationality from Shia
Ufaili Kurd and exiling from Iraq". Saddam was found
guilty of the same charge at his trial.
Mr di Stefano said it was "unacceptable" that Aziz
had been held since April 2003 without trial.
"The only time that Tariq Aziz has been in a
courtroom in 44 months was when he testified in the
Saddam Hussein trial," he said. "He was not even
told what he was being held for."
According to section 109a of Iraq's law on criminal
proceeding, passed in 1971, prisoners may be
released on bail providing that a foreign government
guarantees they will return for trial. Mr di Stefano
said the law had not been amended or superseded
since, and that it had been used to try Saddam.
Russia has indicated that it may support Aziz's bid
for bail. Konstantin Kosachyov, the head of the
Duma's foreign affairs committee, said: "Government
agencies should provide assistance. This is not a
political issue. The issue is purely humanitarian."
Mr di Stefano claimed Aziz was suffering from a
heart condition and emphysema.
"He is not getting medical attention. They will not
execute him, but if he does not get medical
attention he will die," he warned.
"When I saw him on January 3, I had to call a doctor
because he was coughing up blood."
Mr di Stefano has lodged a bail application so that
Aziz can seek treatment, and called upon "any
medical specialists in the UK" to volunteer their
services.
He said Aziz, who was implicated in the UN
oil-for-food scandal, had been interrogated by the
United States, the UK and the Iraqi administration,
but that "99 per cent of what they asked him was
about oil-for-food and George Galloway".
Mr Galloway, the former Labour and now Respect Party
MP, has denied profiting from the oil-for-food
programme. Mr di Stefano also represented Saddam's
co-accused, Barzan al-Tikriti and Awad Ahmed Banda,
before their executions last Sunday. He claimed that
al-Tikriti, Saddam's half-brother, had not received
adequate treatment for spinal cancer. "That is why
his head snapped off when they hanged him," he said.
"He would have been dead in six months anyway".
Mr di Stefano has a history of controversy. He
represented Slobodan Milosevic, the former president
of Yugoslavia who died while on trial for war
crimes, Gary Glitter, the glam rock star jailed for
child molestation in Vietnam, and Kenneth Noye, the
M25 killer.
The Law Society has previously refused to recognise
him as a solicitor.
telegraph co.uk
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