Saddam's deputy faces death penalty in Iraq trial
Last Updated: Tuesday, April 29, 2008 | 11:34 AM ET
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The trial of Iraq's former deputy prime minister, Tariq Aziz, for the execution in 1992 of several dozen merchants accused of profiteering began in Baghdad on Tuesday.
If convicted, Aziz could be sentenced to death
Aziz, who is fluent in English, was the public face of Saddam Hussein's totalitarian regime. He was also the only Christian among Saddam's mostly Sunni Muslim coterie.
He surrendered to American forces on April 25, 2003, and has been in custody ever since.
Among eight other defendants in the trial is Saddam's half-brother and a cousin known as Chemical Ali for his part in the 1988 mustard gas attack on Kurds in the northern village of Halabja. More than 5,000 people died in the assault, the worst use of chemical weapons since the First World War.
Chemical Ali has already been tried in the Halaba case by an Iraqi court and sentenced to hang once other charges against him have been dealt with.
An Iraqi official has said he is too ill to attend the opening days of the latest trial and remains in the custody of the U.S. military at a Baghdad hospital.
Saddam was sentenced to death for the killing of 148 Shiites and executed on New Years Eve 2006.
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