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Iraq's Aziz gets 10 years in prison for
Kurd killings
30.11.2010
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November 30, 2010
BAGHDAD,— An Iraqi court sentenced
former deputy prime minister Tareq Aziz to 10 years
in prison on Monday for the killing of minority
Faili Kurds during the rule of Saddam Hussein.
Aziz, the longtime international face of Saddam's
regime, has already been sentenced to death for the
suppression of Shiite religious parties in the
1980s, although there have been international calls
for him to be spared.
"The courts issued a 10-year prison sentence against
Tareq Aziz and Ahmed Hussein Khodayr," a spokesman
for the supreme criminal court said. Khodayr was an
aide to the now executed dictator.
In poor health and among Saddam's few surviving top
cohorts, Aziz, 74, has been in prison since
surrendering in April 2003, shortly after the
capture of Baghdad in the US-led invasion of Iraq.
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Tariq Aziz was the international face of Saddam's
bloody regime for years. |
Aziz, who was born to a
Christian family, was foreign minister and deputy
prime minister under Saddam, who was hanged in
December 2006.
The death sentence, which was handed down on October
26, provoked a wave of appeals for clemency from
around the world, including from human rights
groups,www.ekurd.netthe
European Union, Russia and the Vatican.
In 2009, he was jailed for 15 years for the 1992
execution of 42 Baghdad wholesalers and given a
seven-year term for his role in expelling Kurds from
Iraq's north.
He has also been sentenced to 15 years in prison for
"committing torture" and 10 years for "participating
in torture," and Iraqi courts have ordered that all
of his known assets be confiscated.
Saadun Shaker, a former interior minister, Aziz
Saleh al-Nohman and Mizban Khoder Hadi, both members
of regional Baath party commands, were meanwhile all
sentenced to death in connection with the
displacement and killing of Faili Kurds during the
Iran-Iraq war which stretched from 1980 to 1988.
Seven others were released "for lack of evidence,"
the court spokesman said.
Unlike most Kurds, the Failis are Shiite Muslim, and
many were expelled from Iraq when Saddam's minority
Sunni Arab-led regime waged war with Iran.
Copyright, respective
author or news agency, AFP
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