Tariq Aziz due on trial in Iraq


Tariq Aziz is expected to appear in court for his trial



Former Iraqi Deputy PM Tariq Aziz is due to go on trial over the deaths of a group of Baghdad merchants in 1992.
Mr Aziz along with seven other former members of Saddam Hussein's regime is accused of involvement in the executions of about 40 merchants.
The merchants were accused of hiking food prices at a time when Iraq was under international sanctions. They were executed after a speedy trial.
One of the co-accused is Ali Hassan al-Majid also known as "Chemical Ali".
Ali Hassan al-Majid is already on death row after being convicted last year of leading a campaign in the late 1980s in which tens of thousands of Iraqi Kurdish civilians were killed.
TARIQ AZIZ
Born in 1936 near Mosul northern Iraq
Studied English literature and became a journalist
The most senior Christian in the toppled Saddam Hussein regime
Enlisted US support for war on Iran
Met US President Ronald Reagan at the White House in 1984
Was Saddam Hussein's deputy for more than a decade



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Another of Mr Aziz's co-accused is Saddam Hussein's half-brother Watban Ibrahim al-Hassan.
Mr Aziz's son Ziyad has insisted that his father is innocent in an interview with the BBC.
"He sent me a message through a lawyer saying don't worry about me I am strong" Ziyad Aziz said.
"Everybody knows that he was not involved in this thing but the Iraqi government has accused him and [plans to] put him on trial because of his name because he is Tariq Aziz.
"Even though he was part of the regime everybody knows my father was responsible for foreign relations of Iraq and other countries… he was not involved in this thing about he merchants."
Mr Aziz received hospital treatment last year after a fall in prison while in 2006 he suffered a stroke.
He was taken into custody in April 2003 after he gave himself up to US forces.
Veteran judge



The trial will be conducted by the Iraqi High Tribunal which was set up to try former members of Saddam Hussein's regime. Mr Aziz is expected to appear in court in person tribunal spokesman Areef Shaheen has told the BBC.
The trial would be conducted in a similar way to previous cases with the court first hearing from complainants then from witnesses and finally from the defendants the spokesman said.
Saddam Hussein was executed in December 2006 after being convicted of crimes against humanity over 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 Mr Aziz's trial. He is the same judge who sentenced Saddam Hussein to death. Human rights groups have criticised the Iraqi High Tribunal on a range of issues. Human Rights Watch issued a report into the trial of Saddam Hussein which concluded that the process was flawed and its verdict unsound because of "serious administrative procedural and substantive legal defects".