April
24, 2008
BAGHDAD, - Iraq's former Deputy Prime
Minister, Tariq Aziz, and other senior officials are
set to be tried over the deaths of a group of
merchants, officials say.
The men, who served in Saddam Hussein's government,
will appear in court on 29 April, the officials say.
They include Saddam Hussein's half-brother, former
Interior Minister Watban Ibrahim al-Hassan.
They are accused of involvement in the summary
execution of about 40 merchants in 1992.
"Aziz will face trial in the Iraqi High Tribunal on
April 29, along with eight former officials,
including Ali Hassan al-Majid (Chemical Ali) and
then interior minister Watban al-Hassan," Badie Aref
told AFP on Wednesday.
The merchants were rounded up and accused of
manipulating food prices.
This occurred at a time at a time when Iraq was
under international sanctions. The merchants were
executed hours later.
Several other officials will go on trial at the same
time, including Ali Hassan al-Majid, also known as
Chemical Ali, the AFP news agency reports.
Ali Hassan al-Majid 'Chemical Ali' is already on
death row after
being convicted of leading 'Anfal' campaign in the
late 1980s in which tens of thousands of Iraqi
Kurdish civilians were killed.
Anfal was an anti-Kurdish campaign led by the former
regime between 1986 and 1989 and involved a series
of military campaigns against the Kurdish Peshmerga
fighters as well as the mostly Kurdish civilian
population of southern Kurdistan 'northern Iraq'.
The campaign,www.ekurd.net
in which chemical weapons were used, The Anfal
operation crackdown that killed nearly 200,000
Kurdish civilians and guerrillas.
The Iraqi High Tribunal was set up to try former
members of Saddam's regime.
Saddam Hussein himself was executed in December 2006
after being convicted of crimes against humanity for
the killing of 148 Shia men and boys after a 1982
assassination attempt against him.
Judge Rauf Rasheed Abdel Rahman, an Iraqi Kurd, will
preside at the trial. He is the same judge who
sentenced Saddam Hussein to death. |
Tariq Aziz was the international face of Saddam's
bloody government for years
Saddam Hussein's half-brother. Former Interior
Minister Watban Ibrahim al-Hassan
Judge Rauf Rasheed Abdel Rahman, an Iraqi Kurd, will
preside at the trial. He is the same judge who
sentenced Saddam Hussein to death. |
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