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Tariq Aziz, former Iraqi foreign minister, dies in hospital | |
(34 minutes later) | |
Tariq Aziz, the international voice of Saddam Hussein’s regime, has died in an Iraqi hospital aged 79 after several years of poor health, a provincial official has said. | |
“Tariq Aziz died in Hussein teaching hospital in the city of Nassiriya where he was brought when his health condition worsened,” Adel Abdulhussein al-Dakhili, the deputy governor of Dhi Qar province, where the former foreign minister was jailed, told Agence France-Presse. | |
Related: Tariq Aziz: 'Britain and the US killed Iraq. I wish I was martyred' | |
Dakhili did not specify the cause of death, but Aziz’s health had long been failing, as he suffered from heart and respiratory problems, high blood pressure and diabetes. | |
His family had repeatedly called for his release and in 2011, his lawyer said Aziz wanted the then premier, Nouri al-Maliki, to accelerate his execution due to his worsening health. | |
Aziz was found guilty of “deliberate murder and crimes against humanity” over a crackdown on religious parties in the 1980s and was sentenced to death in October 2010. He was also handed various prison sentences for other crimes. | |
As Hussein’s principal spokesman, Aziz – the only Christian in the now-executed dictator’s inner circle – was an internationally recognisable figure whose rise was attributed to unswerving loyalty to the despot. | |
Once omnipresent, haranguing the international media and instantly noticeable in his trademark thick glasses and neat uniform, Aziz turned himself over to American custody a month after the US-led invasion of March 2003. | |
Named foreign minister in 1983 and then deputy premier in 1991, Aziz was believed to have wielded little real power over decision-making, but was one of the regime’s best-known figures abroad. |