Iraq: Former Saddam-Era Officials Sentenced
BAGHDAD — An Iraqi court has sentenced Saddam Hussein’s former foreign minister, Tariq Aziz, to 15 years in prison.
It’s the first conviction for the man who for years was the former regime’s public face to the West.
Saddam’s cousin “Chemical Ali” also got a 15-year sentence Wednesday in the 1992 execution of 42 merchants accused of being behind a sharp increase in food prices when the country was under strict U.N. sanctions.
A senior judicial official says two of Saddam’s half-brothers were sentenced to death. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to release the information.
Wednesday’s conviction comes just over a week after Aziz was acquitted in a separate case.
