Sentenced to hang: Former Saddam mouthpiece Tariq Aziz

THE public face of Saddam Hussein's regime, Tariq Aziz, was sentenced to death by hanging yesterday for persecuting Shi'ite Muslims - just over three months after the Americans transferred him to Iraqi custody.

High tribunal spokesman Mohammed Abdul-Sahib did not say when the 74-year-old former foreign minister would go to the gallows. Aziz has 30 days to launch an appeal.

Aziz, the only Christian in Saddam's mainly Sunni Muslim inner circle, bowed his head and frequently grasped the handrail in front of him as the judge read the verdict.

His Jordan-based lawyer, Badee Izzat Aref, accused the government of fixing the trial to divert attention from revelations about prisoner abuse by Iraqi security forces contained in US military documents released by whistleblower site WikiLeaks.

"We are discussing this issue and what next step we should take," Aref said. "This sentence is not fair and it is politically motivated."

Aziz became internationally known as the dictator's defender first as foreign minister after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990.

Iraq has executed a number of high-profile members of Saddam's regime, including "Chemical Ali" al-Majid, Saddam's cousin, who earned his nickname for atrocities such as the killings of an estimated 5,000 Kurds in a poison gas attack in 1988.

Saddam himself was taunted by onlookers as he went to the gallows in December 2006, at the height of sectarian violence, shocking observers in and outside the country and raising allegations the Shi'ite-led government was bent on revenge.

Saddam found Aziz useful in the powerful positions he held - as a Christian he had no real constituency in Iraq, and therefore no sectarian power base.

Aziz was on trial in a long-running case in which he is accused of being part of a campaign of persecuting, killing and torturing members of the Shi'ite opposition and the banned religious parties, such as the Shi'ite Dawa Party, of which prime minister Nouri al-Maliki is a member.

He was sentenced to 15 years' jail for taking part in forced displacement and ten years for committing torture. Judge Mahmoud Saleh al-Hassan sentenced him to death for participating in deliberate killings.

Aziz has already been convicted and sentenced to 15 years for his role in the 1992 execution of 42 merchants found guilty of profiteering. He also received a seven-year sentence for a case involving the forced displacement of Kurds in northern Iraq.

If the appeal court upholds the death sentence, the law says Aziz should be hanged within 30 days of the final decision.The Iraqi president also needs to sign off on an execution order.

Aziz predicted, in a recent interview, he would die in prison.

He surrendered about a month after the US-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003 and was held at a US prison in Baghdad until the Iraqi government took control of it in July. The Americans transferred Aziz to Iraqi custody with dozens of other former regime figures as part of preparations for a full withdrawal next year.

He is now being held in Baghdad's Kazimiyah prison, uses a cane for support and has suffered several strokes, say his family.