Saddam's Right-Hand Man to Seek Asylum in Rome

Tareq Aziz to seek asylum in Rome:

dubai • Iraqi former deputy prime minister Tareq Aziz wants to live in Rome after his release from jail, believing he will be welcomed in the Italian capital, an Arab newspaper reported yesterday.

Aziz’s plans were revealed by his lawyer in Baghdad last week, the pan-Arab newspaper Asharq Al Awsat said.

“I want to live in Rome. The Pope and Italian officials welcomed me,” Aziz said in answer to a question about his future hopes delivered via his lawyer.

Aziz was the only Christian member of Saddam Hussein’s cabinet and frequently met Pope John Paul II and his close advisers, the last time in mid-February 2003, barely a month before the beginning of the US-led invasion of Iraq.

The 71 year old surrendered to US troops in Iraq in April 2003. Since then he has been imprisoned at Camp Cropper, a holding centre near Baghdad international airport.

Aziz is suspected of involvement in the execution of dozens of members of the former Baath regime in 1979 and mass killings of Shi’ites and Kurds in 1991, but his legal representatives say he has yet to be charged.

[More]