By Xinhua,
Baghdad : The trial of Saddam’s former Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz and his seven codefendants resumed Tuesday here over their alleged roles in the execution of 42 merchants in 1992.
Aziz, 72, who also served as foreign minister in Saddam’s regime, appeared in court dressing in a grey suit and leaned on a cane as he walked into the courtroom.
Presiding judge Rauf Rasheed Abdel Rahman opened the trial in the Iraqi High Tribunal in Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone without any presence of Aziz’s lawyers.
Earlier, Aziz’s son who lived in Amman in the neighboring Jordan said that a team of foreign lawyers was not granted visas for Baghdad to attend his father’s trial.
Chief prosecutor Adnan Ali told the court that the eight defendants were charged with crimes against humanity. If proved, the charge will mean death penalty for them.
In 1992, 42 Iraqi merchants were accused of hiking food prices in violation of state price controls when Iraq faced UN sanctions imposed after its 1990 invasion into Kuwait. They were executed hours after the verdict.
The chief prosecutor accused the defendants of involvement in the execution of the merchants as they were members of the Revolutionary Command Council (RCC), ultimate decision making body in Iraq during the Saddam era.
Ali said the 42 victims were not allowed to have lawyers or even bring documents that could help their case.
“There was a systematic campaign planned under the cover of darkness. Its villains were members of the Revolutionary Command Council and security agencies,” Ali added.
For his part, Aziz told the court that the trial was based on personal revenge because of his membership in the RCC as well as the former ruling Baath party under Saddam.
“Focusing on the membership of the Revolutionary Command Council means revenge. I know it is a personal revenge,” Aziz said.
Other defendants in the case include Saddam’s half brother Watban Ibrahim al-Hassan, interior minister when the executions took place, and Sabaawi Ibrahim al-Hassan, a former top security official.
The defendants also include a former finance minister, a central bank governor and two senior Baathist party members.
The eighth defendant is Saddam’s cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid, better known as “Chemical Ali” who is already on pending death sentence for his role in using poison gas to kill Kurdish villagers in the 1980s.
The Iraqi High Tribunal was set up after the U.S. invasion in 2003 to try former members of Saddam’s government.
Previously, it has conducted three trials against former regime officials, including the Dujail case in which Saddam was convicted of crimes against humanity for killing 148 Shiites after a 1982 assassination attempt. Saddam was executed in December 2006.