Grandkids visit Aziz on death row in Iraq

2011-02-07 15:01

Amman - Tareq Aziz, Saddam Hussein's former deputy premier now on death row, received a family visit by his wife and seven of their grandchildren last week, his son Ziad told AFP on Monday.

"My four children, the two children of my sister Zeinab and a daughter of my other sister Maissa visited my father last week, together with my wife and my mother," said Ziad Aziz who lives in Amman with his family.

"My father did not recognise them, having not seen them since 2003. He saw one of my daughters (aged 7) for the first time as she was born during his time in prison," he said.

He said his father, 74, suffered from decreased sight and mobility.

"His pleasure had been books and magazines which we used to send him, but he asked us to stop because he can't read any more," said the son.

Aziz, one of Saddam's few surviving top cohorts, has been in prison since surrendering in April 2003, days after the fall of Baghdad in the US-led invasion of Iraq.

Iraq's supreme criminal court has found the long-time international face of the ousted president's regime guilty of "deliberate murder and crimes against humanity" in a 1980s crackdown on Shi’ite religious parties.

He was sentenced to death on October 26 last year but President Jalal Talabani said in November he would not sign his execution order for the sentence to be carried out.

Several countries have urged Iraqi authorities to show clemency for Aziz, who was the sole Christian to hold a top post in Saddam's regime.

- AFP