PARIS, May 13: A French investigating magistrate has questioned former Iraqi deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz as part of a probe into the United Nation’s scandal-tainted oil-for-food programme, the daily Le Parisien/Aujourd’hui en France reported on Saturday.

Judge Philippe Courroye questioned Tariq Aziz twice last week in his Baghdad prison but Saddam Hussein’s former deputy did not implicate anyone, his son Zaid told the newspaper.

Courroye ‘wanted to know if my father’s former French friends received any money as part of oil-for-food programme. He understood that several people implicated had named him.

“My father felt [Courroye] wanted him to name names. He didn’t do it. He didn’t want to play a game that could serve the interests of the United States,” Zaid Aziz said in a telephone interview.

A dozen people — including former interior minister Charles Pasqua and former diplomats — are under judicial investigation in France over their alleged role in the 64-billion-dollar UN scheme.

The oil-for-food programme, which ran from 1996 to 2003, allowed Baghdad, which was under international sanctions, to sell limited quantities of oil so it could buy food and medicines for the Iraqi people.

The programme is the centre of a vast international scandal, focusing on the use of oil vouchers granted by Baghdad to foreign personalities deemed to be well-disposed to the government.

“The judge showed him a list of several French personalities. I understand it had on it more than a dozen names. My father didn’t confirm anything. He didn’t accuse anyone,” said Zaid Aziz.

Zaid said his father ‘helped the French a lot. He loves the country. Moreover, he had good relations with President Chirac’.

Courroye spent 10 days in the Iraqi capital, and was believed to have also visited the archives of Somo, the Iraqi institution then charged with selling oil under the UN programme, as well as have interviewed other former officials.

Translations of documents seized and minutes of his meetings were still being worked on in Baghdad, according to Le Parisien/Aujourd’hui en France.

According to Zaid Aziz, judge Courroye may return to Baghdad. —AFP