http://arabnews.com/middleeast/article171650.ece
Russia, Greece seek clemency for Aziz
By AGENCIES
Published: Oct 28, 2010 00:31 Updated: Oct 28, 2010 01:02
MOSCOW/ATHENS: Russia and Greece called on Iraq on Wednesday not to carry out the death sentence on Tareq Aziz on humanitarian grounds.
Greek President Carolos Papoulias on Wednesday called on his Iraqi counterpart to help repeal the death sentence imposed on former deputy Premier Tariq Aziz for crimes against humanity.
"The President of the Hellenic Republic has appealed to Iraqi President Jalal Talabani to intervene to prevent the death sentence imposed on former Iraq Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz from being carried out," Papoulias' office said in a statement.
"The president stresses that such a gesture would be greatly appreciated by Iraq's friends in the European Union and internationally, and highlight the difference between the country's democratic present and its past."
Papoulias, the official head of the Greek state, was foreign minister from 1985 to 1989, a period when Aziz also served as foreign minister of Iraq.
"From a basic humanitarian point of view, it is obvious that his situation requires mercy," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on official site mid.ru, adding that Aziz, who was born in 1936, suffered from health problems and was of an advanced age.
Russian lawmakers on Wednesday denounced the death sentence imposed on Aziz.
"What has happened in Iraq is the elimination of a witness and a settling of accounts between different religions, not a victory for justice," Mikhail Margelov, the head of the foreign affairs committee in Russia's upper house, the Federation Council, was quoted as saying by Interfax. "Nothing can justify this sentence," he added.
"We will... call on the international community and parliamentarians in Europe and the United States to prevent this assassination," the head of Russia's Communist Party, Gennady Zyuganov, was quoted as saying by Interfax, describing Aziz as "a very sick old man."
Russia strongly opposed the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq.
Last year, Aziz was sentenced to 15 years in prison for his part in the killings of dozens of merchants in 1992 and to a further seven years for his role in the forced displacement of Kurds from northern Iraq during Saddam Hussein's rule.
He surrendered to invading US forces in April 2003 but was handed over to Iraqi prison authorities this year.
The Vatican has also appealed against the sentence which was passed by Iraq's high tribunal on Tuesday on Aziz, once the international face of Saddam's government and Iraq's foreign minister. He is also a Christian.
Iraq's supreme criminal court on Tuesday found Aziz guilty of "deliberate murder and crimes against humanity," sentencing to death the long-time international face of the Saddam Hussein regime.
The verdict evoked quick reaction from the European Union and rights group Amnesty International, while the Vatican urged clemency for Aziz.
Aziz was sentenced to death along with two other pillars of the former Iraqi regime, former Interior Minister Saadoun Shaker and Abid Hmoud, a one-time aide to Saddam.
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