“On Tuesday, my father telephoned us to say that he had (temporarily) lost consciousness and that the American doctor and director of the prison decided to transfer him to hospital in Balad,” north of Baghdad, Ziad Aziz said in Amman.
“The prison doctor who examined him after he lost consciousness checked my father's medical history, and after seeing that he had suffered a cerebral haemorrhage in 2002, decided to transfer him to hospital.” Ziad, who lives in Amman, said he had received another call from his father on Saturday.
“He had a weak voice. He told me he was in intensive care.
“Is it normal that a sick, 71-year-old man should be imprisoned without having been charged?” he asked, adding that the prison doctor and director had “saved his life by deciding to hospitalise him.” Defiant and urbane, and with his mastery of English, Aziz put a cultured gloss on the Iraqi regime in dealing with the West, softening the brutal edges without masking the message of his ruthless master, Saddam Hussein.
He turned himself over to US forces one month after the US-led invasion toppled Saddam in April 2003. He was later questioned several times by judges of the Iraqi Special Tribunal trying the former president and top aides for crimes against humanity and war crimes.
He was suspected of mass murder, allegedly committed in 1979 and 1991, and punishable by death. He denied any involvement, and his lawyers say he has never been formally charged.
Aziz is from an Assyrian Christian family, born in the northern city of Mosul. He changed his given name, Michael Yuhanna, to Tareq Aziz which means “glorious past”, in a nod toward his religious background.—AFP