By DPA,
Baghdad : The trial of Iraq’s former deputy prime minster, Tariq Aziz, and seven other members of the Saddam Hussein regime was due to start Tuesday after being delayed for procedural reasons, court sources said.
Aziz and the other defendants are charged with ordering the execution of 42 merchants in 1992 for increasing food prices at a time when Iraq was under international sanctions.
Court sources told DPA that the eight ex-officials will be tried by presiding judge Rauf Abdul-Rahman, who sentenced Saddam to death in 2006.
The trial will be conducted by Iraq’s High Tribunal, which is in charge of trying members of the former regime.
The defendants include Watban Ibrahim al-Hassan, a half-brother of Saddam, and the former central bank governor, Issam Hawish.
Another defendant is Saddam’s cousin, Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as chemical Ali. He was sentenced to death in June for his role in a genocide campaign against the Kurds in northern Iraq in which poison gas was used.