Tareq Aziz's son: "End my father's suffering"

Tareq Aziz

June 9, 2011: Sentenced to hang in Iraq, Saddam Hussein's ex chief of diplomacy Tareq Aziz has serious health problems and does not want to die in jail. His son Ziad asked the Iraqi government to put an end to his suffering. "My father can no longer move or speak, and has great difficulty feeding himself," Ziad explained in a telephone interview from Amman with the daily Le Figaro.

Aziz's family is indignant over the Iraqi authorities' silence. "Two weeks ago my mother and my sister went to meet the authorities in Baghdad, but they weren't able to. The vice Justice minister did not even respond to our phone calls" Ziad said.

Three months after the confirmation of his death sentence, Aziz launched a petition for either his sentence to be carried out immediately or for him to be provided needed medical care. The request that Aziz receive all necessary assistance has been rejected by Nouri al-Maliki's Shiite government many times.

In a visit to Baghdad yesterday, Italian foreign minister Franco Frattini expressed satisfaction that a moratorium on Tareq Aziz's death sentence was achieved. "We know that many preeminent voices such as President Jalal Talabani spoke of the possibility of clemency, however the Iraqi law does not allow for this."

The Minister explained that "regardless, it is important that we still speak about Tareq Aziz today as a man in prison and not in a tomb."

Source: TMNews, Hands Off Cain, June 9, 2011

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