Tareq Aziz jailed for 15 years

Former Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz was jailed for 15 years yesterday and two of Saddam Hussein's half-brothers were sentenced to death for their roles in the killings of dozens of traders in 1992.

The traders were executed after being accused of hiking prices of goods in breach of state price controls, when Iraq's economy was collapsing as a result of UN sanctions imposed for its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

"The court has ruled that Watban Ibrahim al-Hassan... and Sabaawi Ibrahim al-Hassan be hanged until death for committing a premeditated killing... a crime against humanity," Judge Raouf Abdul Rahman said.

Mr Sabaawi was Saddam's head of public security at the time and Watban was interior minister.

As the verdict was read out, Mr Sabaawi stood up and shouted "God is great" and "down with the occupier", saying he was proud to be a martyr. The judge told him to sit down.

The verdict came less than two weeks after the same Iraqi High Tribunal cleared Mr Aziz, for years the public face of Saddam's regime, of any role in killing and displacing Shi'ite Muslims in 1999. That trial saw Saddam's cousin, Ali Hassan al-Majeed, receive a third death sentence.

Some within Iraq have seen the trials of Saddam's allies as revenge against those who flourished under his Sunni-led regime.

"All that we hope is that this verdict be free from political intentions," said Dhafer al-Ani, a top member of the Accordance Front, Parliament's biggest Sunni bloc. He declined to comment on whether the verdict was politically motivated.

The ruling was the first time the 72-year-old Aziz, who also served as foreign minister under Saddam, has been convicted of a crime since he gave himself up to US troops in April 2003, just two weeks after the former Iraqi leader's rule ended.

In court, he wore his trademark big-rimmed glasses with a blue suit and he looked frail, leaning on a crutch as he walked into the room. He said nothing when the verdict was read out.

Majeed, nicknamed "Chemical Ali" for his use of poison gas to kill Kurds in the 1980s, was also sentenced in the trader case to 15 years.

Political disputes have delayed his execution. Saddam's secretary Abed Hamid Mahmoud, already jailed for life in another case, received a second life sentence. A senior member of Saddam's Baath party, Mizban Hadi, was given 15 years in prison and the former head of Saddam's presidential office, Ahmed Hussein Khudhayer, got six years. A former central bank governor, Isam Rasheed, was acquitted. Mr Aziz's lawyer says he still has two further trials pending. The only Christian in Saddam's inner circle, Mr Aziz rose to prominence around the time of Iraq's invasion of Kuwait and the 1991 Gulf War, when he was foreign minister, exhibiting faultless English, strong nerves and negotiating skills.

He also featured prominently in Iraq's conflict with Iran from 1980-1988, helping win US support for Saddam's invasion.

The Iraqi High Tribunal was set up after the 2003 US-led invasion to try Saddam and former members of his government.

New York-based Human Rights Watch estimates 290,000 people vanished under Saddam, many of their bodies heaped in ditches.

Saddam was executed in December 2006 after being convicted of crimes against humanity for the killing of 148 Shi'ite men and boys after a 1982 assassination attempt.

But Sunni Arabs were outraged by a video showing the ousted leader being subjected to sectarian taunts by official observers of the Shi'ite-led governing coalition in his last moments.