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January 13, 2006
Sweden: Saddam's Minister Seeks Medical Treatment
Lawyers for Tariq Aziz (pictured), who was Iraq's foreign minister under Saddam Hussein's Ba'athist regime, is in need of medical treatment, and his lawyers have approached Sweden for assistance in this, states the Local.
International lawyer Giovanni Di Stefano who is acting on behalf of Aziz, told Agence France Presse today that the minister's defence team has asked for Aziz to be immediately freed on compassionate grounds "bearing in mind his precarious health and other mitigating factors."
Aziz has had a crebral embolism and currently has heart problems. According to the Swedish government, however, there has so far been no receipt of such an application for Aziz to be treated in Sweden. A spokesperson for the ministry of foreign affairs has said that it may have been sent, but a check has not revealed any communication.
Giovanni de Stefano has also contacted France and Italy, requesting treatment for the minister there. The Local explains that Aziz has been in custody since APril 2003. Any likely sentence he may receive, should he be found guilty, would not be for longer than the period he has already spent behind bars.
On Thursday, a US official said Aziz's health was bad when he was first detained, and his condition has not dramatically worsened lately.
Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at January 13, 2006 6:07 PM
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