“Iraq’s high tribunal has passed a death sentence on Tariq Aziz, one of deposed leader Saddam Hussein’s most prominent deputies. The death sentence, announced on Tuesday [October 26, 2010], was the first to be handed to Aziz, who had previously been convicted for his role in the execution of dozens of merchants for profiteering. ‘The court today issued the death sentence on Tariq Aziz and four others for committing crimes against humanity. The charge of elimination of religious parties was classified as crimes against humanity,’ Judge Mohammed Abdul-Sahib, a spokesman of the Iraqi High Tribunal, said. ‘The nature of the crimes is wilful killing, torture and the enforced disappearance of persons.’ Al Jazeera’s Rawya Rageh, reporting from Baghdad, said that the charges against Aziz are related to the persecution of Shia Muslim parties in the 1980s.”
– “Tariq Aziz Sentenced to Death,” Al Jazeera, Oct. 26, 2010