Former Iraqi deputy PM to stand trial for past atrocities

Aziz was the only Christian among Saddam’s inner circle and was for years among the most visible figures of the ousted regime. Â

 

Court spokesman Munir Hadad said the trial begins Tuesday and will deal with the execution of 42 Iraqi merchants accused by Saddam’s government of being behind a sharp increase in food prices when the country was under strict U.N. sanctions.

 

In addition to Aziz, Hadad said the defendants will include Saddam’s half brother Watban Ibrahim al-Hassan and former Central Bank govenor, Issam Mula Hawish.

 

The merchants were rounded up from Baghdad’s wholesale markets after Saddam accused them of manipulating food supplies to drive up prices at a time when many Iraqis were suffering economically. All 42 of them were executed hours later after a quick trial.

 

Presiding over the trial will be Judge Raouf Abdul-Rahman, who sentenced Saddam to death in May 2006 for his role in the killing of Shiite Muslims in Dujail after an assassination attempt in 1982. Saddam was hanged the following December.

 

Saddam was executed while on trial in a second case - the massacre of Kurds in the late 1980s.

 

A third trial is under way for officials accused of crushing a Shiite uprising that followed the 1991 Gulf War.